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LIFE 



OP 



DEWITT 'CLINTON 



BY 



JAMES RENWICK, L L. D., 

PROFESSOR OP NATURAL EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY AND 
CHEMISTRY IN COLUMBIA COLLEGE 



NEW-YORK: ., 
PUBLISHED BY HARPER «& BROTHERS, 

NO. 82 CLIFF-STREET. 



184(\Vc' 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1840, b7 

Harper & Brothers, 

In the Clerk's OfBce of the Southern District of New-York. 



t » c 
c c 
etc 



PREFACE. 



The Biography of Dew^tt Clinton, which is now 
submitted to the pubHc, was originally intended to 
have been a mere sketch, comprised within less 
than- a third of its present extent. The subject, 
however, was found to present itself in so many 
new and important points of view, that.it appear- 
ed probable that so meager an outline would have 
given but little satisfaction to the reader. In this 
stage of the composition, the author was tendered 
the use of the manuscript papers of the subject of 
the biography, and various other materials, by the 
kindness of Charles A. Clinton, the worthy and 
estimable son of so distinguished a father. To 
this gentleman thanks are gratefully returned for 
this and various other assistance which he has ren- 
dered the author. Thus, while no undue influence 
has been exerted by any of the relatives or. friends 
of the departed statesman, the work will have the 
merit, if it possess no other, of being drawn from 
the nK)st authentic sources. 

Columbia College, June, 1840. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



Page 



Introduction. — Memoir of the Family of Clin- 
ton 13 

CHAPTER n. 

Birth of Devntt Clinton. — His early Educa- 
tion. — He studies at the Kingston Acade- 
my. — He is present at the Evacuation of 
JYew-York. — He enters Columbia College. 
— Account of the Professors of that Insti- 
tution. — Clinton distinguishes himself as 
a Scholar, and graduates vdth the highest 
honours 25 

CHAPTER m. 

Clinton enters upon the Study of the Law, 
and is admitted to its Practice. — He is ap- 
pointed Private Secretary to his Uncle the 
Governor. — His Career as a Political Wri- 
ter. — He retires to Private Life, and allies 
himself to Scientific Pursuits. — He Mar- 
ries. — Character of his Wife 37 



IV CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Page 



State of Parties under the Administration of 
Adams. — Clinton is elected a Member of 
Assembly. — He is chosen Senator of the 
State. — He becomes a Member of the Coun- 
cil of Appointme7it. — Contest in respect to 
the Powers of that Council. — State Conven- 
tion. — His Victory over Jay. — He is elected 
a Senator of the United States, where he 
is opposed to Gouverneur Monis. — Debate 
on the Mississippi Question. — Clinton'' s 
Speech on that occasion. — He acquires a 
high Reputation as a Statesman .... 49 

CHAPTER V. 

Clinton is appointed Mayor of the City of 
Mew-York. — Important Duties of that Of" 
fee. — His successive Reappointments and 
Removals. — Fluctuations of Party. — Caus- 
es of his Decline in Popularity. — Plis 
great Ability as a Criminal Judge, — The 
College Riot. — His Energy as Head of the 
Police. — Threatened Riots prevented by his 
Measures of Precaution. — Aggressions of 
British Cruisers in the Waters of JYew- 
York. — Breaches of JYeutrality attempted 
by the French. — Clinton^s Acts on these 
Occasions 61 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Page 



Origin of the Public School Society of Kew- 
York. — It is Chartered. — Is founded on 
Private Contributions. — Clinton's Agency 
in obtaining them. — Gift from the Corpo- 
ration of JVew-York, and Grant from the 
State Legislature. — Reflections on the Sys- 
tem of Common Schools. — Turnpike from 
Poughkeepsie to Kingsbridge 78 

CHAPTER VII. 

Clinton is elected a Member of the State Sen- 
ate. — Incorporation of the Sailor's Snug 
Harbour. — Law removing the Incapacities 
of Roman Catholics. — Charter of the Man- 
umission Society ; of the Chicinnati. — 
Grant for an Insane Hospital. — Charter 
of the Eagle Fire Insurance Company. — 
Grant for the Defence of the Harbour of 
Jfeio-York. — Academy of Fine Arts In- 
corporated. — Clinton is named a Director, 
and subsequently President of the Academy. 
— Charter of the American Fur Company. 
— Burial of the Remains of the Prisoners 

in the Jersey Hulk 89 

A2 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Page 

Im,porta7it Laws drawn hy Clinton while Sen- 
ator. — His Opinions as a Memher of the 
Court of Errors. — He Receives a Chal- 
lenge for words spoken in Debate. — His 
Manly and Dignified Conduct on that Oc- 
casion. — Attempt at Corruption in obtain- 
ing the Charter of a Bank 101 

CHAPTER IX. 

Literary and Scientific Pursuits of Clinton. 
— Historical Society ; his efforts in its be- 
half and his Mdress on the History of the 
Five JYations. — Literary and Philosophical 
Society formed, and Clinton chosen Presi- 
dent. — His Inaugural Discourse. — His Dis- 
covery of a JYative Variety of Wlieat, and 
other Contributions to Natural Science . .114 

CHAPTER X. 

Description of the Water Communications of 
the State of JYew-York. — Use made of 
them by the Indians. — Expedition of Gen- 
eral Clinton on the Susquehanna. — Views 
of Lieutenant-Governor C olden. — Tour of 
Washington to Wood Creek. — His Predi- 
lections for the Route to the Chesapeake, 



CONTENTS. Vll 

Page 

— Clinton'' s liberal Policy in relation to this 
Question . 129 

CHAPTER XL 

Western Limit of the early Settlements on 
the Mohawk. — Claims of Massachusetts. 
— These Claims are 'partially Admitted. 
— Influx of Emigration from Mew-Eng- 
land. — Voyage of the Wadsworths. — State 
Roads. — Western Inland Lock JYavigation 
Company. — Its slow Progress and unsuc- 
cessful Result. — Communication between 
the Hudson and Lake Champlain. — JYor- 
them Canal 141 

CHAPTER XTI. 

Earliest Legislation of the State of Jfew- 
York in relation to Canals. — Petition of 
Colles. — Report of Jeffrey Smith. — Mes- 
sages of George Clinton. — Resolution of 
Judge Forman. — Survey made by Geddes, 
who first demonstrated the Practicability 
of a Route to Lake Erie. — Essays of Jesse 
Hawley. — Resolution of Judge Piatt. — 
Appointment of a Board of Commissioners, 
of which Clinton is one. — Character of 
Morris, the senior Commissioner. — JYotice 
of the other Commissioners 153 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER Xni. 

Page 

The Canal Commissioners undertake to ex- 
amine the Route. — Clinton and others pro- 
ceed hy Water from Schenectady. — l^eir 
Progress to Geneva, after a Deviation to 
Oswego. — Journey hy Land to JYiagara, 
and return to Albany hy the way of Ithaca. 
— Meetings of the Commissioners at Utica 
and Chippeway. — Diversity of Opinion in 
the Board. — Opinion of Morris. — Clinton's 
Views prevail in the Board. — Report dravm 
up hy Mr. Morris. — Examination of its 
Features and Consequences 167 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Origin and Growth of the Democratic Party. 
— Its Triumph in the Election of Jefferson. 
— George Clinton chosen Vice-President in 
the place of Burr. — His Pretensions to he 
the Successor of Jefferson. — He is passed 
over. — Jealousy of Tf*Vg'mia. — Jill Aid to 
the JVew-York Canals is refused. — Dewitt 
Clinton is named as a Candidate for the 
Presidency. — Examination of his Course 
in relation to the War 182 



CONTENTS. IX 

CHAPTER XV. 

Page 

Progress of the Canal Policy interrupted by 
the War. — Clint&n tenders his Military 
Services to Governor Tompkins. — His Re- 
port on the Defence of the City of JVew- 
York. — Measures of the Corporation, and 
of the State and General Governments, in 
consequence. — Clinton is removed from his 
Office of Mayor. — He renews the Consid- 
eration of the Canal Question. — Meeting 
on that Subject in JYew-York. — Clinton 
draws the Memorial of that Meeting. — Ex- 
amination of the Contents, and Effects of 
that Memorial 198 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Memorial is presented to the Legislature. — 
Final Report of the Old Board of Com- 
missioners. — Law to provide for the Im- 
provement of the Internal JYavigation of 
the State. — The JYew Board of Commis- 
sioners enter upon their duties. — Their Re- 
port. — Vast amount of field-work perform- 
ed under their direction. — Scheme of Fi- 
nance. — Law of Congress for promoting 
Internal Improvements. — Its Rejection by 
President Madison as unconstitutional. — 
Modifications rendered necessary in the 



X CONTENTS. 

Page 

Scheme of Finance. — The Bill to authorize 
the construction of the Canal becomes a 
Law. — Opposition of the City Delegation. 
— The Canal Policy made by them a party 
question 213 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Clinton is elected Governor of the State of 
Jfew-York. — Apparent Calm in Party Feel- 
ings. — Causes of renewed Party Violence. 
— Tompkins is held up as a Candidate in 
opposition to him. — Clinton's Re-election. 
— Farther increase of Party Violence. — 
Interference of the General Government. — 
Personal Hostility added to Feelings of 
Party. — Important Measures recommend- 
ed by Clinton and carried in the Legis- 
lature. — Character of his Speeches to the 
Legislature 247 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Objections to the old Constitution of the State. 
— All Parties concur in a desire for its 
Amendment. — Bill calling a Convention 
returned by the Council of Revision. — 
Clinton's Opinions on the subject. — A Law 
is passed by which the call of a Convention 
is submitted to a popular vote. — Alterations 
made in the old Constitution. — Clinton's 



CONTENTS. 



XI 

Page 



term of Office is abridged.— He declines 
to he a Candidate for re-election.— Accident 
to his leg.— His first Wife dies.— He visits 
the States of Jersey and Ohio.— He visits 
Pennsylvania.— He is examined before a 
Committee of the Legislature.— He is re- 
moved from his Office of Canal Commis- 
sioner. —Public Indignation in Consequence, 
—Attempt of the General Government to 
tax Vessels navigating the Canal— Clinton 
is nominated by the Republican Convention 
at Utica, and again elected Governor.— He 
marries his second Wife ...... 247 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Success of the Canal Policy. — Silver Vases 
are presented to Clinton by the Merchants 
ofJYew- York.— He is invited by Mr. Adams 
to serve as Minister to Great Britain, and 
declines.— Great Celebration of the opening 
of the Canal.— JYew and important Public 
Works recommended by Clinton.— His plan 
of a Board of Public Works-Antimasonic 
Excitement.— Coalition to defeat Clinton^, 
election as Governor.— He is, notwithstand- 
ing, re-elected 266 



XU CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XX. 



Page 



Clinton^s views of Religious Worship. — His 
Services to the Preshyterian Education and 
Bible Societies. — His occasional Addresses. 
— Great change in the Relations of Parties. 
— Clinton recommends the Road through 
the Southwestern tier of Counties. — His 
Illness and Death. — Political Reflections. 
— Description of Clinton's Person, and Re- 
marks on his Character. — Illustrations of 
the importance of his Services in promoting 
the Canal Policy of the State .... 285 



DEWITT CLINTON. 

CHAPTER I. 

Introduction. — Memoir of the Family of Clinton. 

In undertaking a biography of Dewitt Clinton, 
a task of no little difficulty is to be performed. 
Few men have been more the object of virulent 
animosity or of more exalted praise. It is, there- 
fore, hardly possible to obtain any reasonable esti- 
mate of his character and public services from the 
testimony of his contemporaries ; a part of whom 
sought to sink him below the level in popular es- 
teem of which he was certainly worthy, while 
others, perhaps, endeavoured to raise him to a 
standing to which he was hardly entitled. In 
such conflicting testimony, the truth can with dif- 
ficulty be reached. 

It will be necessary, too, in describing his ca- 
reer, to open anew the wounds of political discord. 
In the violent contests between two great and 
powerful parties, which preceded the war of 1812, 
and in the continual fluctuations of opinion which 
have since occurred, there was hardly any distin- 

B 



14 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

guished individual of our state who has not at one 
time been opposed to Clinton, and at another uni- 
ted with him in the pursuit of the same political 
object^ and of these many still survive. There 
were also others, who, opposed to him personally 
in the early period of his life, continued that op- 
position to the hour of his death, and seem to 
have been guided finally by no other principle but 
that of being found in the party where he was 
not ; and there have been some who sunk all oth- 
er considerations in devoted attachment to his for- 
tunes. 

Those who were so long his open enemies, how- 
ever, prey not upon the character of the dead j 
and those who, with fair and manly feelings, sup- 
ported him when his course was consistent with 
their views of state and national policy, and act- 
ed against him without personal motives when 
their opinions did not coincide with his, cannot be 
offended by a narrative, intended to be impartial, 
of his eventful career. There are those, however, 
who meanly flattered him when possessed of pow- 
er, and as basely deserted him when the tide of 
politics set against him, to whom a candid account 
of the vicissitudes of his political hfe must recall 
disagreeable reflections ; and there must be some 
of those who almost deified him while alive, who 
may feel disappointed at the coldness of the prais 
es which this history awards him. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 15 

The name and family of Clinton are insepara- 
bly connected with the history of the Province and 
State of New-York. Under the royal government, 
George Clinton, a naval officer of high rank, was 
for a time chief-magistrate of the colony. A sec- 
ond of the same name, the uncle of the subject 
of our memoir, was the first governor of the state 
after its independence was declared. This office 
he held for eighteen years, and was distinguished, 
not only for a faithful discharge of the civil duties 
of his office, but for a brave though unsuccessful 
defence of the passes of the Highlands, at the 
head of the militia suddenly gathered to oppose 
the royal forces. 

James Clinton, the father of Dewitt, was a 
brave and useful military officer in the war of 
1756 and in that of the revolution; while a third 
of the name of George, the son of James and 
brother of Dewitt, represented the City of New- 
York in the Congress of the United States. 

However unimportant we may justly view such 
pretensions as are founded on ancestral worth 
alone, and however politic it may be in a repub- 
lican government to reject all claims to distinction 
growing out of such a cause, we may still feel, 
and with propriety gratify, a curiosity as to the 
race whence our eminent pubhc servants have 
drawn their descent. In countries where an aris- 
tocracy prevails, the sons often derive all their dis- 



16 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

tinction from the exploits and virtues of their sires; 
while in those where no such adventitious source 
of dignity exists, the merits of the descendant re- 
flect back honour upon the memory of his progen- 
itors. 

The family which bears the name of Clinton is 
of Norman origin. Individuals belonging to it 
appear in the history of the Crusades, and figure 
in the chivalrous chronicles of Froissart and Mon- 
strelet. For our own purposes, we need only go 
back to the immediate ancestor of the branch 
which settled in the State of New-York, who was 
a gentleman of fortune and influence in the reign 
of Charles I. A cadet of the family of the Earls 
of Lincoln, he espoused, along with many other 
scions of noble houses, the royal side in the civil 
war. On the failure of that cause, he had attain- 
ed a sufficient degree of eminence as its adherent 
to be too obnoxious to the victors to hope for safe- 
ty. He therefore took refuge on the Continent. 
We next find him in Scotland, under circiunstan- 
ces which lead to the impression that he had ac- 
companied Charles II. in the brave but unfortu- 
nate effort which that prince made to reconquer 
England at the head of the Scottish army. Here 
he married a lady of the noble house of Kennedy. 
After the disastrous battle of Worcester, he, with 
his wife, sought refuge in Ireland, in which coun- 
try he died, leaving a son of the tender age of two 
years. 



DEWITTCLINTON. 17 

James Clinton, the son, made an attempt, on 
reaching the age of manhood, to regain the estate 
of his father, sequestered by the commonwealth 
for his adherence to the royal cause. Here he ex- 
perienced the ingratitude which disgraced the res- 
toration of the Stuarts. The estate was withheld 
on plea of an act of limitation, and no indemnity 
was granted to him. During his stay in England 
in presenting his claims, he wooed and wedded 
Elizabeth Smith, the daughter of an officer in the 
army of the Parliament. The fortune of this lady 
was sufficient to establish him respectably in Ire- 
land, whither he returned on the failure of his 
claim upon royal gratitude. 

It is not to be questioned, that the denial of 
what was no more than strict justice must have 
lessened, in a great degree, the feelings of loyalty 
to kings which James Clinton may have derived 
from his parents. His children, in addition, drew 
their maternal descent from the stern republicans 
who had doomed a monarch to the block. We 
therefore find Charles Clinton, his son, a dissenter 
from the established religion, and in opposition to 
the ruling party in Ireland. 

While the revolution of 1689, and the accession 
of the House of Hanover, established the privile- 
ges of Englishmen on a surer foundation, Ireland 
was treated as a conquered country, and ruled by 
a small minority of her population upon princir 

B2 



18 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

pies of bigotry and intolerance. In order to es- 
cape the annoyance and oppression arising from 
this policy in the government, Charles Clinton, in 
the 40th year of his age, resolved to emigrate to 
North America. In this determination he was 
joined by a number of friends and neighbours, 
subject to the same disqualifications, who cluster- 
ed around him as the leader of their enterprise. 
Pennsylvania was the proposed object of the voy- 
age on which they embarked from Dublin in May, 
1729. From want of skill or fidelity in the mas- 
ter of the vessel, the passage was prolonged to 
the month of October, when the members of the 
proposed colony were happy to be landed on the 
bleak and inhospitable peninsula of Cape Cod. 
In this disastrous voyage many of the passengers 
perished, and Charles Clinton lost an only son 
and one of his two daughters. 

Their original intentions being thus frustrated, 
Charles Clinton and his associates remained for a 
time at Cape Cod, until a place of settlement 
could be chosen. This was at last found in the 
valley of the Walkill, in the present county of 
Orange. To this they removed in the spring of 
1731. 

The choice of the land for this settlement re- 
flects credit on the sagacity of Charles Clinton. 
Up to this time the selection of lands had been 
principally directed by their capacity for the growth 



DEWITT CLINTON. 19 

of grain. He, as the leader of a colony accustom- 
ed to pastoral occupations rather than tillage, 
sought for soil which should yield a rich and 
abundant pasturage, and thus formed the nucleus 
of that industrious body of Irish Presbyterians, 
whose luxuriant fields of grass, and the valued 
products of their milk, justify the scriptural appel- 
lation of the land of Goshen, which has been 
given to this pastoral region. Under the influ- 
ence of that strong attachment to the land of their 
ancestors, which was not destroyed until after 
years of oppression and suffering, this colony gave 
to their settlement the name of Little Britain. 

In the early settlement of the Province of New- 
York, it had been customary for bands of emigrants 
to unite together under a leader for the purpose 
of mutual defence and support. Such leaders 
were, in many cases, persons of capital and enter- 
prise, who sought, in the establishment of a colo- 
ny, a profitable investment for themselves, in a 
property entailed upon their descendants. The 
policy of the early government, under both Bata- 
vian and English rule, favoured this mode of set- 
tlement ; and grants were made of large tracts to 
the leaders, in order to be apportioned among their 
followers upon tenures almost feudal in their char- 
acter. In this there was no real injustice, because 
much of the cost of the transportation of the emi- 
grants from Europe was defrayed by the leader 



20 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

of the expedition, who also paid the fees, small 
though they might be, attendant upon issuing the 
patent, and extinguished the Indian claim. Such 
tenures still exist among us; and the occupiers 
of the land, forgetful of the circumstances under 
which their predecessors acquired their possessions, 
are apt to grumble at the moderate rents in kind, 
and personal services, which serve, in fact, to pay 
the cost of emigration and settlement. The com- 
panions of Charles Clinton, although they looked 
up to him as a leader, were not dependant in their 
circumstances. The settlement at Little Britain 
was therefore made on principles of strict equali- 
ty, each head of a family acquiring in fee that por- 
tion of land which his capital or his command of 
labour enabled him to occupy to advantage. In 
spite of this principle of equality, the superior in- 
telligence and education of Charles Clinton gave 
him a consideration among his neighbours as ele- 
vated as if he had become possessed of manorial 
rights. 

Although distant no more than sixty miles from 
New-York, and only eight from the bank of the 
Hudson, the settlement of Little Britain was a 
frontier post. The house of Charles Clinton was 
therefore fortified, as a security, not for himself and 
family alone, but as a refuge for his neighbours in 
threatened attacks from Indian enemies. 

In becoming an integral part of a well-govern- 



DEWITT CLINTON. 21 

ed community, the supremacy of the laws was to 
be maintained, and he was forthwith named a jus- 
tice of the peace. Before many years elapsed, 
his usefulness in this capacity was extended by his 
receiving the appointment of a judge of the Com- 
mon Pleas for the county of Ulster, within the lim- 
its of which Little Britain at that time fell. 

These offices, which were then exercised without 
emolument, and were, therefore, no object to those 
who might otherwise have sought them as a means 
of livehhood, furnish evidence of the high estima- 
tion in which Charles Chnton was held by his 
neighbours and by the government of the prov- 
ince. In an age of little litigation, his judicial du- 
ties did not interfere with the cultivation of his 
farm, nor prevent his attention to the education of 
his family. It has been seen that his first-born 
son died on the passage from Europe. Four oth- 
ers were born to him after his settlement at Little 
Britain. The two eldest of these chose the pro- 
fession of medicine, and the second of them served 
as surgeon in the combined English and Conti- 
nental army which took the Havannah in 1762. 

James, the third son, was born in 1736, and 
was educated under the paternal roof. When the 
war of 1756 broke out, his father received the ap- 
pointment of Keutenant-colonel in the militia of the 
province, and the son was, at the same time, na- 
med an ensign in his father's regiment. In these 



22 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

capacities both were called into active service, and 
were present at the capture of Fort Frontenac in 
Upper Canada, on the site of the present town of 
Kingston. 

The fourth son was called George, after the co- 
lonial governor of that name, who claimed and 
admitted the ties of consanguinity with the settler 
of the valley of the Walkill. George Clinton, 
who held for so many years the office of governor 
of the State of New-York, and died Vice-presi- 
dent of the United States, is too well known in 
American history to require to be commemorated 
by us. He was also an officer at the capture of 
Fort Frontenac. 

James Clinton had attained, at the close of the 
French war in 1761, the rank of captain, and 
was successively promoted through the intermedi- 
ate stations to the command of the second regi- 
ment of Ulster county Militia, which he held at 
the commencement of the struggle for independ- 
ence. His father did not live to see that con- 
test, but died in the year 1773. James Clinton, 
in the interval between the close of the French 
war and the beginning of that of the revolution, 
married Miss Mary Dewitt, a descendant of a fam- 
ily from Holland. Four sons were the fruit of this 
union, of whom Dewitt, the subject of this Me- 
moir, was the second. v<-<L 

On the commencement of hostilities in 1775, 



DEWITT CLINTON. 23 

James Clinton was among the first officers who 
were named by Congress to take commands in the 
army raised under its authority. His first appoint- 
ment was as colonel in the New-York line; he 
was subsequently promoted to the rank of brio-a- 
dier, and held the commission of major-general at 
the close of the war. He distinguished himself in 
the defence of the passes of the Highlands, when 
stormed by the British army in 1777. In this ac- 
tion he served under the command of his brother, 
then commanding, as governor of the state, the 
militia which had been called into active service, 
while the British forces were led by Sir Henry 
Clinton, the son of the colonial governor, in hon- 
our of whom George had been named. 

He afterward commanded the forces collected 
in the Valley of the Mohawk to oppose the Indians 
and Tories who threatened the settlements of that 
region, and subsequently led his army to join that 
of General Sullivan, in the expedition which drove 
the Indians from their fastnesses. Of this united 
army he commanded the right wing, and contrib- 
uted much to the success of that undertaking. In 
order to join Sullivan, it was necessary to make a 
military road from the Mohawk at Fort Plain to 
Lake Otsego. Here boats were to be built to con- 
vey the troops with their stores, and, in order to 
float them over the bars and shallows of the up- 



24 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY, 

per Susquehanna, a temporary flush of water was 
obtained by damming up the outlet of the lake. 

He last appeared in arms at the siege of York- 
town, where he aided in the capture of Cornwal- 
lis and his army. 

At the close of the Revolutionary war General 
James Clinton retired to his estate in Orange coun- 
ty. Here, however, he was not suffered to remain 
unemployed in the service of his native state, but 
was frequently called upon to exercise offices of 
high trust, and to perform legislative duties. 

Such was the race from which the subject of 
our memoir derived his birth ; and his own talents 
and distinguished public services, so far from re- 
quiring the aid of ancestral dignity to illustrate 
him, would have ennobled the family from which 
he sprung. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 25 



CHAPTER n. 

Birth of Dewitt Clinton. — His early Education. — 
He studies at the Kingston Academy. — He is 
present at the Evacuation of Mew-York. — He 
enters Columbia College. — Account of the Pro- 
fessors of that Institution. — Clinton distinguish- 
es himself as a Scholar, and graduates with the 
highest honours. 

Dewitt Clinton was born March 2d, 1769, at 
Little Britain, the residence of his father, General 
James Clinton. His early education was intrust- 
ed to the Rev. Mr. Moffat, the pastor of the Pres- 
byterian church in that settlement. In 1782 he 
was removed to the Academy of Kingston, an in- 
stitution at that time of high celebrity, under the 
direction of a Mr. Addison. It was, in fact, the 
only public school that had been able to maintain 
its usefulness unimpaired during the revolutionary 
war. The whole state, with the exception of a 
small part in the neighbourhood of Albany, had 
been the seat of active hostilities. The British 
armies had penetrated from the north as far as Still- 
water, and from the south nearly to the present site 
of Hudson. Kingston itself had been sacked and 
burned, but this caused no long suspension of the 



26 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

operations of its academy, which an enlightened 
pubhc spirit speedily re-edified. In the year 1784, 
having mastered all the subjects taught at the 
Kingston Academy, Dewitt Clinton was removed 
from it by his father, for the purpose of entering 
upon a more elevated course of study. For this 
purpose the college at Princeton was selected, and 
the son accompanied his father to New- York on 
their way to that institution. General Clinton had 
some months before taken a part in the ceremonial 
of receiving possession of New-York from the 
British troops. His son had then visited the city, 
where he witnessed the final evacuation of that im- 
portant position by those who had so long held it, 
and shared in the joy of those who, after seven 
years of exile, were restored to their homes and 
household gods. 

Thirty years before, a college had been estab- 
lished, by royal charter, in the City of New-York. 
This had been eminently successful in the produc- 
tion of sound and elegant scholars ; and although 
its usefulness had been narrowed by the attempt to 
conduct it in conformity to the system of an estab- 
lished church, and for the propagation of royalist 
principles, it had, notwithstanding, trained some of 
the most eminent men who had taken the part of 
their country in the Revolutionary struggle. This 
institution had been almost ruined by the war. 
Its students and teachers had been driven out to 



DEWITT CLINTON. 27 

make room for the sick of the American army ; its 
president chased from his post by a mob, enraged 
at his warm and vigorous support of the British 
cause ; its hbrary, then the most complete on the 
Continent, wasted and dispersed ; its apparatus 
and museum destroyed. The occupation of New- 
York by the British forces did not mend its con- 
dition. Thus, while Cambridge, Princeton, Phil- 
adelphia, and Williamsburg had in succession 
become the quarters of armies, or the actual seat of 
hostilities, without sustaining any injury to their 
well-endowed universities, that of New-York had 
been almost obliterated. 

The circumstances in which young Clinton was 
placed were the direct means of reviving this de- 
cayed institution. The nephew of the governor of 
the state and the son of one of its most distinguish- 
ed citizens, it appeared to be a public disgrace 
that he should be compelled to resort to another 
state for his education. It was therefore deter- 
mined to attempt to reopen the deserted halls of 
the college in New-York. A lucky chance per- 
mitted this to be done under the auspices of men 
of no little learning. 

On the close of hostilities, the inhabitants of 
one of the counties of Virginia had resolved to re- 
store a deserted academy of that state. For this 
purpose they had addressed themselves to Dr. Ogil- 
vie, of Aberdeenshire, in Scotland j and, at his in- 



28 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

stance, two young men of high promise and much 
learning had crossed the Atlantic. On reaching 
Virginia, they found that the inducements which 
had been held out to them were unfounded, and 
that no provision had been made for their comfort- 
able support. Thus disappointed in their expecta- 
tions, they had reached New- York on their return 
to their native country, the one burning with in- 
dignation and disgusted with everything American, 
the other in sorrow at leaving a country for whose 
people and institutions he had conceived an attach- 
ment. In this state of mind they were found by 
Mr. Duane, the mayor of the city ; and while the 
former not only declined for himself, but endeav- 
oured to dissuade his companion, the latter joyful- 
ly accepted a call which promised the attainment 
of his desires. 

This young Scotsman whom chance thus pre- 
sented was the late John Kemp, LL.D., who for 
28 years after was the soul of the institution, to 
which, in lieu of its former style of King's, the 
name of Columbia College was now given. The 
son of a father who had lost his property by his 
adherence to the cause of the Stuarts, he had been 
brought up by an uncle. While a student in the 
University of Aberdeen, he had competed for, and, 
after three days of hard contest, gained the prize 
of mathematical learning. The most valuable 
part of this distinction was the right of receiving 



DEWITT CLINTON. 29 

the instructions of the mathematical professor du- 
ring the long vacations of seven months, which 
interrupt the courses of the Scottish Universities. 

The professor at that time was Hamilton, who 
outlived his pupil, and distinguished the close of 
his life by the publication of his celebrated argu- 
ment against the popular belief, that a debt did 
not diminish the wealth of a nation. In this place 
we have only time to say, that this argument, which 
carried with it immediate conviction, may be con- 
sidered as having been the distant cause of the 
long peace which has continued among civilized 
nations since the downfall of Napoleon. 

Dr. Kemp was not unworthy of the privileges 
which his previous proficiency had gained for him, 
and left college one of the best mathematicians of 
the age. His other attainments were also great : 
he was an excellent classical scholar, and had 
mastered all the physical knowledge of the day. 

Another fortunate chance secured to Columbia 
College the services of the Rev. Wm. Cochran, 
a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, a sound 
and excellent classical scholar. The revived insti- 
tution had also the benefit of the services of Ben- 
jamin Moore, afterward the right reverend bishop 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the state. 
This gentleman, distinguished for his sound learn- 
ing, his fine taste, and his persuasive eloquence, 
was a model of mild courtesy, and often succeeded 

C2 



30 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

in enforcing discipline by an appeal to feelings of 
honour and sense of character, when harsh meas- 
ures would have been unavailable. His important 
duties in the organization of his church, and the 
high responsibility of the station to which he was 
speedily elevated, withdrew him from the labours 
of education. After some years he was restored 
to the college in the capacity of its chief officer, 
but without any share in its active tuition ; and 
under his rule the institution rose to a high degree 
of prosperity, from which it fell for a time under 
the administration of an officer, whose high abili- 
ties and learning were not tempered by the pru- 
dence and caution for which Bishop Moore was so 
eminent. 

Dr. Moyes, who filled the chair of Natural His- 
tory and Chemistry, had the misfortune to be 
blind ; yet his lectures were popular and instruct- 
ive. He had the high merit of being the first to 
introduce the latter science into the United States, 
freed from the dreams of alchymy. It was, how- 
ever, still in its infancy, and the brilliant discoveries 
of Lavoisier were not yet received or even comple- 
ted. Hence, in after life, Clinton found the neces- 
sity of keeping up with the progress of this sci- 
ence, of which even the language in which he 
had studied it was entirely changed. This labour, 
however irksome, he encountered. 

The faculty of the college was completed by 



DEWITT CLINTON. 3l 

the appointment of Samuel Bard, M.D., to the 
chair of Natural Philosophy, and of Dr. Grose to 
that of Metaphysical Science. 

Of this faculty, Messrs. Kemp and Cochran 
alone devoted their whole time to the business of 
their chairs. The other gentlemen had, in addi- 
tion, other professional pursuits. This was for the 
moment favourable ; for they were men of high 
eminence and learning, who were collected by the 
wants of the growing city, and were thus enabled 
to afford their valuable services, at a time when 
the dilapidated state of the finances of the college, 
and the limited number of the pupils, would not 
have permitted the call of persons of equal attain- 
ments for the specific duty. 

The organization that was at this time attempt- 
ed of a university, which, with the college of New- 
York as its centre, was intended to include all the 
public seminaries of the state, was a plan of much 
promise, and, had it been pursued in the spirit of 
those who proposed it, might have been attended 
with incalculable advantage. It is remarkable, 
that it seems to have been the model on which, 
some years later, the University of France was 
framed ; and that has been pre-eminently success- 
ful. The two projects, however, differed in one 
essential feature. The central administration of 
the University of France is, indeed, presided over 
by a minister of state, but it includes m its body 



32 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

men who have risen to it by success as teach- 
ers; the board of regents of the University of the 
State of New- York is elected by the Legislature, 
and, from the first, all men of practical skill in in- 
struction seem to have been carefully excluded. 

We need only say, the scheme was not carried 
into effect. Columbia College was soon withdrawn 
from all but the nominal jurisdiction of the regents ; 
and no unity of purpose or action exists among the 
colleges and academies of the state. Finally, on 
the establishment of the school fund, it was not 
considered expedient to vest its management in 
that board, which, had it been efficient, would have 
seemed to be the proper organ for dispensing the 
public bounty. 

Dewitt Chnton was the first matriculated stu- 
dent of the college, re-established in the manner 
we have mentioned, and was admitted to the ju- 
nior class. The instructions of the able teachers 
who have been named were not without their ef- 
fect upon the future character and services of Clin- 
ton. In no well-conducted institution would he 
have failed to become a distinguished scholar ; but 
there were certain views and principles which he 
could not, at that time, have heard discussed in 
any other institution. Dr. Kemp, the favourite 
pupil of Professor Hamilton, was in the habit, in 
his mathematical course, of enforcing the yet un- 
published views of his master on the subject of 



DEWITT CLINTON. 33 

public debts ; and urging the necessity of provi- 
ding for every debt contracted a sum sufficient not 
only to defray the interest, but to pay off the prin- 
cipal by an annuity. In his lectures in illustra- 
tion of the mechanical part of natural philosophy, 
he prided himself on giving to every subject a 
practical bearing, and thus the principles and his- 
tory of canal navigation formed a favourite theme. 
He, in particular, insisted on the necessity of aban- 
doning all attempts to improve the navigation of 
small rivers, and of substituting canals for the 
whole distance; illustrating his position by the 
celebrated saying of Bradley, that such streams 
*^ were intended by the Almighty for feeding ca- 
nals." At the time that Clinton was his pupil, his 
acquaintance with the topography of the United 
States would not probably have enabled him to 
have formed the clear and lucid views he was sub- 
sequently in the habit of expressing, in relation to 
the capacities of the State of New-York for inland 
navigation. These became afterward a matter of 
public record, in a letter he addressed to his friend 
Dr. Beattie. In this he points out the possibility 
of a canal navigation from Oswego to Albany, and 
an extension to the West by the Seneca River to 
the heads of the Seneca and Cayuga Lakes. 
Among the number of his pupils who were dis- 
tributed throughout the State of New-York, these 
views had made a deep impression, and had a de- 



34 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

cided influence in preparing the public mind for 
the system which was finally adopted. In the 
mind of Clinton, the financial arguments and true 
principles of internal improvement enforced by his 
teacher, may naturally have formed the basis of 
the sound and enlightened views which subse- 
quently directed his conduct. If they did no more, 
they must have had the effect of exciting his curi- 
osity, and leading him to study for himself those 
principles of finance and systems of internal im- 
provement to which his attention was directed by 
his instructer. 

During the two years Clinton remained as a stu- 
dent in Columbia College, he distinguished him- 
self by a marked superiority over all his fellows. 
This superiority has, w^ith a pardonable pride, 
been alluded to by his instructer. Dr. Cochran, in 
a letter to Dr. Hosack, the eulogist of Clinton. "I 
found Mr. Clinton apt to learn anjiihing that was 
required of him. He was clear in mathematics, 
and correct in classical knowledge. He did eve- 
rything well : upon the whole, he seemed likely to 
me to prove, as he did prove, a highly useful and 
practical man : what the Romans call civilis, and 
the Greeks TroXtriKog, a useful citizen, and quali- 
fied to counsel and direct his fellow-citizens to 
honour and happiness. And now, in conclusion, I 
cannot but feel self-gratulation and pride, I hope 
a virtuous one, when I reflect on the number of 



DEWITT CLINTON. 35 

eminent persons that have proceeded from the very 
cradle of Columbia College. Draw, at a venture, 
from the old and illustrious seminaries of England 
and Ireland, the same number of names as we had 
on our books, and I will venture to affirm that they 
will not be superior to such men as Governor 
Chnton, Chancellor Jones, the Rev. Dr. John M. 
Mason, and some others." 

In conversation Dr. Cochran thus spoke of the 
early talent of Chnton. " I hear," said he, " that 
his political opponents call him, by way of reproach, 
magnus Apollo. If he have not degenerated from 
what I knew him as a boy, he is well entitled to 
the appellation as a title of honour." 

Clinton's academic career closed in 1786, when 
he received the usual degree of bachelor of arts, 
taking, at the commencement, the highest honour 
which the institution could bestow. He left to his 
successors, as students in Columbia College, an 
example of steadiness, diligence, and moral excel- 
lence, which is the more meritorious, as many 
young men in his position might have been incli- 
ned to idleness, from the feeling that their family 
had already reached a station which would exempt 
them from labour; and to insubordination, from the 
knowledge that their teachers held office during 
the pleasure of their nearest connexions. 

It is not to be concealed, that there was one oc- 
casion on which a dispute arose between the stu- 



36 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

dents and one of the professors of the college, and 
that Clinton was put forward as the champion of 
his associates, on whose behalf he wrote a com- 
plaint to the Board of Regents, by which the af- 
fairs of the college were then administered. This 
address is marked with precocious ability, but had 
no effect on the proceedings of that board, which 
sustained the professor in what the students con- 
sidered an unwarrantable exercise of authority du- 
ring hours not devoted to collegiate duty. It is 
mutually to the credit of the teacher and his pu- 
pil, that the prominent position in which Clinton 
was placed on this occasion had no effect upon his 
standing in his class. The collision had the effect 
of establishing the character of the teacher for 
fearlessness and decision; and so little was his 
course blamed by the friends and family of Clin- 
ton, that the immediate superintendence of the 
studies of his younger brothers, and of his cousins, 
the sons of the governor, was intrusted to the 
professor against whose conduct Dewitt Clinton 
had penned the remonstrance. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 37 



CHAPTER m. 

Clinton enters upon the Study of the Law, and is 
admitted to its Practice. — He is appointed Pri- 
vate Secretary to his Uncle the Governor. — His 
Career as a Political Writer. — He retires to Pri- 
vate Life, and applies himself to Scientific Pur- 
suits. — He 7narries. — Character of his Wife. 

Upon leaving college Clinton entered immediate- 
ly upon the study of the law. For this purpose he 
was placed in the office of the Hon. Samuel Jones, 
who at that time held a high rank at the bar of 
the State of New- York. This learned jurist had 
taken no active part in the war of revolution; 
and, from his quiet acquiescence in the sway ex- 
erted by England over the counties occupied by 
her armies, had even been accused of the senti- 
ments called Tory. Like many others in the same 
position, this acquiescence arose from no hostile feel- 
ing to the cause of independence, but from the ne- 
cessity of the case. Enveloped, with their famihes, 
by an armed force, and cut off' from all communi- 
cation with their countrymen, they had no choice 
but submission. On the evacuation of New-York, 
Mr. Jones resumed his profession, and took at once 
the highest place among the barristers of the day. 

D 



38 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

His legal eminence descended to his sons ; one of 
whom has reached the high office of chancellor of 
the state, and still presides in one of the most im- 
portant courts. The intimacy between the families 
of Jones and Chnton, whether renewed or grooving 
out of the position in w^hich young Clinton was 
placed, has continued, from that time, and has 
been cemented by more than one intermarriage. 

The routine of a lawyer's office affords little op- 
portunity for the exhibition of more than steady 
industry, and in this respect both the teacher and 
scholar appear to have been mutually satisfied 
with each other. Practice in forensic disputation 
was sought by Clinton in an association of young 
men, engaged, like himself, in legal studies j and 
here he held a prominent rank among many who 
afterward attained to excellence in various ways. 
His admission to the bar took place after the usual 
course of three years' study, and the examination 
prescribed by law. He was not, however, permit- 
ted to try his' success in the practice of that pro- 
fession, although his friends foretold him a brill- 
iant career. His uncle, the governor of the state, 
at a period of great political excitement, had need 
of a person both of great capacity and unques- 
tioned fidelity as secretary. This post had been 
filled by the elder brother of Dewitt Clinton, who 
was unfortunately drowned in the Hudson. On 
the death of this brother, in order to serve his rel- 



DE WITT CLINTON. 39 

ative and efficient patron, he consented to forego 
the hopes of a profession which, in his hands, 
promised both to be productive of great emolu- 
ment and a road to distinction. It has been re- 
marked of EngUsh legislators, that, however ne- 
cessary may be the mere study of the laws, and 
particularly that of the constitution of their coun- 
try, to those who aim at political eminence, none 
who have become entangled in its practice have 
distinguished themselves as statesmen. The rea- 
son is obvious ; the necessity of confining them- 
selves to one side of a cause creates a habit of 
viewing a subject in a single light, and in its de- 
tails rather than in its broad and general bearings. 
The nice refinements of special pleading are un- 
suited to the ears of a popular assembly, and are 
repugnant even to the taste of a dehberative body. 

It was, therefore, fortunate for his country, and 
particularly to his native state, that Clinton aban- 
doned so early the profession of the law, and en- 
tered into the career of politics. Whether it were 
equally so to his own happiness may well be ques- 
tioned. The hfe of CUnton was from this moment 
one of political strife, into which he threw all the 
force of his ardent temperament and brilhant tal- 
ents, and in which he acquired but few disinter- 
ested and really attached friends, and made many 
bitter enemies. 

We have already stated that he accepted the of- 



40 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

iice of private secretary to his uncle at a time of 
great excitement. The question of the adoption 
of the federal constitution in the place of the old 
confederation had just been settled. His uncle 
had been opposed to many of the details of that 
measure, and had resisted it with all his influence 
to the moment when farther opposition would have 
become factious. If w^e look to the progress in 
wealth and population which New-York has made 
since that period, a progress due not more to the 
blessings of a stable government than to its own 
unrivalled position, we may ascribe to George 
Clinton the gift of prescience. He may have seen 
that his state was destined to take the first rank in 
the confederacy ; its chief city to be the emporium 
of the commerce of the Continent ; and, imbued 
with the attachment to state rights which has 
again become so popular, may have patriotically 
desired to secure to the commonwealth over which 
he presided the advantages which nature had pre- 
pared for it. If we were to investigate the results 
which would have followed, had the proposition 
which was strongly urged by many been acceded 
to, namely, that a general and uniform tariff of 
duties should be adopted throughout the confeder- 
ation, of which each state should receive into its 
own treasury that which was collected within its 
Hmits, how proud would have been the position of 
New-York. In its chief port are collected half the 



B E W I T T C L I N T O N. 4| 

revenues from customs of the whole union ; and it 
would have attained this pre-eminence years earli- 
er than it actually did. Philadelphia would not 
have been enabled to rival it so long by the in- 
fluence of capital collected in its two successive na- 
tional banks, and all other cities must have sunk 
in the comparison. 

The State of New-York also had no ill-founded 
claim to the whole of the territory north of the 
42d degree of latitude, as far west as the Missis- 
sippi. This claim seemed to have been considered 
as unquestionable so long as the colonial govern- 
ment lasted, and is exhibited upon the maps of 
that day. The adverse claim of Massachusetts 
covered but a narrow strip, and New-Yoiii cut her 
off from the lands in dispute. No state, therefore, 
yielded so much to the union as New-York. That 
many true patriots should have hesitated in muti- 
lating the sovereignty under which such revenues 
w-ere in prospect, and which might have maintain- 
ed its land-claims by force if necessary, is not to 
be wondered at. 

It happened, luckily, however, that a more ex- 
tended sense of patriotism prevailed, w^hich embra- 
ced not states or separate interests of even wider 
influence, but the whole of that people which had 
stood side by side in the war of independence. But 
let not those who now wage political warfare on 
sectional grounds — who speak of an Eastern and a 

D2 



42 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

Western interest — who advocate abolition because 
it will injure the South, or a system of finance that 
will injure the North, impeach the patriotism of 
those opposed to the federal constitution. The 
modern politicians seek to cause a division in inter- 
ests which are already united, and whose severance 
would create the most disastrous consequences ; the 
anti-federalists sought to perpetuate an existing 
state of things, from any change in which they 
erroneously anticipated evil. 

The discussion on the subject of the constitution 
was carried on in the public papers. The cause 
which prevailed was sustained by the veteran pen 
of Jay, the strong and clear intellect of Hamilton, 
and the cool sagacity of Madison. At this day it 
is unnecessary to say how triumphant were their 
arguments, and how thoroughly the able exposi- 
tion of the constitution contained in the papers col- 
lected under the name of " The Federalist" has 
become a part of the common law of the land. 
Yet this powerful publication was not allowed to 
remain unanswered, and the most able of the op- 
posing arguments were found in papers bearing 
the signature of " A Countryman." These were 
the production of Clinton, and carried conviction 
to a large proportion of the voters of the State of 
New-York. If we cannot now assent to the jus- 
tice of his views, we may, notwithstanding, admire 
the boldness which did not shrink from a contest 



DEWITT CLINTON. 43 

with writers of such transcendent reputation, and 
the abihty which to many minds appeared to have 
gained a victory over them. 

In the state convention which was assembled 
to consider the new constitution, for the purpose of 
its being ratified or rejected by New-York, General 
James Clinton had a seat, and Governor Geoi-ge 
Clinton presided. In this assembly broad feelings 
of patriotism prevailed over the grounds which had 
been the basis of an opposition to the adoption 
of the constitution. Dewitt Clinton was present 
at the meetings of the convention, and reported its 
debates for one of the city papers. His letters, at 
the time, show him to have been in principle an 
anti-federalist. Mature reflection in after days 
changed his views on this subject ; and his official 
letter to the mayor of Philadelphia, on the occa- 
sion of the death of Hamilton, shows how com- 
pletely satisfied he had then become of the wis- 
dom which directed the framers of the constitution 
of the United States. 

The adoption of the constitution led to the for- 
mation of parties upon principles entirely new. 
The anti-federalists acquiesced in the declared will 
of the majority, and dropped their distinctive ap- 
pellation ; nor did the paramount influence of 
Washington, in his office of president, admit of 
the formation of an opposition upon the ancient 
grounds. Those who accepted representative of- 



44 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

fices under the new constitution would have form- 
ed an opposition to the administration with an ill 
grace, on the ground of their being dissatisfied 
with the provisions of that instrument. A ques- 
tion on which to organize an opposition was, how- 
ever, speedily found in the state of the external re- 
lations of the country. . It is foreign to our pur- 
pose to enter into the questions of the mission of 
Genet, and the commercial treaty made with Eng- 
land by Jay. Suffice it to say, that on these ques- 
tions George Clinton placed himself in the oppo- 
sition to the general government. Into this posi- 
tion he was, perhaps, as much driven by attacks 
upon himself by the federal party, as impelled by 
his own sentiments. The supporters of the federal 
constitution, dissatisfied with the opposition made 
by George Clinton to its adoption, sought a new 
candidate for the office of governor in the person 
of Chief-justice Jay, and nearly succeeded in elect- 
ing him. He, in fact, received a clear majority of 
all the votes, but was not returned by the canvass- 
ers for want of a strict compliance with the pre- 
scribed legal forms. In the published discussions 
which grew out of this contest in the State of 
New-York, and in the opposition to the foreign 
policy of the general government, the pen of 
Clinton found full occupation in the support of his 
uncle's cause. However ephemeral were his es- 
says, which appeared in anonymous forms, and 



DEWITT CLINTON. 45 

however umvilling he may have been in after hfe 
to avow his juvenile efforts as a poUtical gladiator, 
he acquired the reputation of a most pow^erful and 
efficient writer. So high was this reputation, that 
every paper of unusual merit which appeared on 
the side which he espoused was ascribed to him as 
the author, and he thus was often wrongfully sus- 
pected of personal and illiberal attacks, from which 
his own manly nature would have shrunk with ab- 
horrence. 

In 1794, while the aggressions of the two great 
beUigerants of Europe upon our commerce threat- 
ened to involve the United States in a war with one 
of them, Dewitt Clinton united with several other 
young men in the formation of a company of vol- 
unteer artillery. Of this he was chosen lieutenant, 
and soon became the captain. The company form- 
ed a part of the regiment commanded by Colonel 
Bauman, a corps even yet remembered for its sol- 
dierlike deportment and exemplary discipline. In 
this corps he rose to the rank of major. 

While acting as private secretary to his uncle, 
he was also called to fill the stations of secretary 
to the regents of the University, and to a board of 
commissioners who had charge of fortifying the 
harbour of New^-York at the expense of the state. 
These appointments show that he already filled a 
higher place in the estimation of the community 
than is usually reached by the young men who 



46 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

hold the confidential but unimportant place of pri- 
vate secretary to a governor. All these appoint- 
ments ceased when his uncle failed in securing a 
re-election to the office of governor in 1795. The 
federal party now predominated beyond all possi- 
bility of question ; and John Jay, the chief justice 
of the United States, was elected in the room of 
George Clinton. 

Dewitt Clinton was thus restored to private life, 
and ceased to have any engrossing pursuit. He, 
in consequence, sought to re-establish himself in 
the profession of the law, and entered into a part- 
nership with Mr. John McKesson for that purpose. 
The business which presented itself was respect- 
able, and promised to increase rapidly ; but, long 
before the slow steps by w^hich young men ac- 
quire celebrity at the bar could be accomplished, 
he was again recalled to political life. He, how- 
ever, made use of this interval of leisure to apply 
himself to the study of th'e sciences, in which he 
had already made some progress, and for which he 
had a decided taste. The direction which he took 
in this pursuit was influenced in a great de'gree by 
his intimacy with Drs. Hosack and Mitchill. The 
former was at this time professor of botany, the lat- 
ter professor of chemistry in Columbia College. The 
latter, in addition, was almost the only cultivator 
of the science of zoology the United States then 
possessed. In compliance with the pursuits of his 



DEWITT CLINTON. 47 

two associates, natural history, in its several branch- 
es, became the object of his studies. In this de- 
partment of knowledge he made no mean profi- 
ciency ; and it is not a little remarkable, that, while 
the two professors added no very important facts 
to science, the amateur, as we shall see, made dis- 
coveries, one of which, at least, was of great in- 
terest. 

During the same interval Clinton entered into a 
matrimonial connexion. The lady whom he mar- 
ried was Miss Maria Frankhn, the daughter of an 
eminent merchant in New-York of the Quaker 
persuasion. This union v^as a happy one, but was 
dissolved in 1818 by the death of Mrs. Clinton, 
who left a family of four sons and three daughters. 

Mrs. Clinton was a lady of retiring and domes- 
tic habits ; ill-suited, perhaps, to advance the po- 
litical interests of her husband, but better qualified, 
for that very reason, to be his solace in the con- 
stant anxieties and occasional reverses to which 
he was exposed in his political career. Her worth 
may be best illustrated by the tender recollection 
and high esteem with which her children still re- 
gard the amiable qualities and virtues of their 
mother. She w^as a warm-hearted, accomplished, 
and most amiable woman, devoted to the happiness 
of her husband and children, and her death was 
an irreparable loss to her family. 

We have thus passed the period of Clinton's tu- 



48 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

telage, whether literary or poHtical. Up to this 
time he had, in the latter respect, been the agent 
and mouthpiece of his uncle the governor ; we 
have next to contemplate him aspiring to eminence 
under the direction of his own intellect. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 49 



CHAPTER rv. 

State of Parties under the Administration of Ad- 
ams. — Clinton is elected a Member of Assem- 
bly. — He is chosen Senator of the State. — He 
becomes a Member of the Council of Appoint- 
ment. — Contest in respect to the Powers of that 
Council. — State Convention. — His Victory over 
Jay. — He is elected a Senator of the United 
States, where he is opposed to Gouverneur Mor- 
ris. — Debate on the Mississippi Question. — ■ 
Clinton^s Speech on that occasion. — He acquires 
a high Reputation as a Statesman. 

The federal party, which acquired the superiori- 
ty in the State of New-York in 1795, seemed des- 
tined to an ascendency of unlimited duration. 
Looking proudly to Washington himself as their 
leader, their principles seemed indissolubly united 
with the honour and prosperity of their country. 
The sympathy with which the cause of the French 
revolution had for a time been regarded by many 
American citizens, had been replaced, to a great 
degree, by disgust at the insolent pretensions of 
the rulers of that country, and resentment for their 
aggressions. It thus happened, that, when John 
Adams succeeded Washington in the presidential 

E 



50 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

chair, the nation was urged by a feeling almost 
universal into hostilities with France; and, al- 
though no absolute declaration of war was made 
on either side, the commerce of the United States 
was attacked wherever it was accessible by French 
cruisers and privateers ; while measures were adopt- 
ed for the defence of the seacoast by fortifications 
and the creation of a navy. A more questionable 
step was taken by the administration in the enlist- 
ment of an army, which, in the opinion of many, 
was uncalled for, because our shores were, in fact, 
inaccessible to any French force more powerful 
than a single vessel. 

Experience has shown us, that the measures of 
providing a naval armament and an army on a 
peace establishment, which might have served as 
the nucleus of an efficient force in war, were both 
wise. It was also a sagacious step to take ad- 
vantage of the excitement produced by French 
aggressions, to obtain the public consent to these 
important means of national security. They were, 
however, seized by the opponents of the adminis- 
tration as objects of attack. So long as the pop- 
ular excitement against France remained, the at- 
tacks of the opposition were fruitless ; but when 
Adams, in an evil hour for his party, humbled him- 
self and his country before the French Directory, 
all enthusiasm was at an end. 

It would appesff that not only Chnton himself, 



DEWITT CLINTON. 51 

but his uncle, had partaken of the popular feeling. 
When^the citizens of New-York turned out to la- 
bour on the fortifications for the defence of their 
harbour, old George Clinton was seen among them, 
encouraging their toils by his example ; and De- 
witt Clinton was daily engaged in drilling his 
company to the use of the heavy guns mounted on 
the battery. 

The attempt of the administration to maintain a 
regular army after the danger of war was at an end, 
the load of obloquy which was poured upon the 
nav}^, but still more the necessity of imposing tax- 
es, coupled with laws construed as interfering with 
the right of personal liberty, speedily rendered it 
unpopular. The party with which the Clintons 
were connected acquired the ascendency, and Jef- 
ferson was elected president of the United States. 
Even while the victory was yet doubtful, partial 
successes were gained by the party in opposition 
to Mr. Adams. In 1797 Dewitt Clinton was 
elected a member of the Legislature, and in 1798 
state Senator. In this capacity he was chosen, in 
1800, a member of the council of appointment, 
and was engaged in a contest with Governor Jay. 
The state constitution had, in addition to two le- 
gislative bodies, provided two councils to aid the 
governor in his executive and legislative capaci- 
ties. The one was styled that of appointment, 
with whose concurrence and advice all offices 



52 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

were to be filled ; the other that of revision, to 
which all laws were to be submitted. Governor 
Jay, who had, in 1798, been elected by a tri- 
umphant vote, was now opposed by a majority in 
both houses of the Legislature ; and the council of 
appointment, which was chosen from the Senate, 
was of the dominant party. At the meeting of 
this council, Clinton asserted for himself and col- 
leagues the equal right of naming the candidates, 
and of proposing the removal of the holders of of- 
fice. Jay, on the other hand, maintained that the 
sole right of nomination was vested in the govern- 
or, and that the council had no other powers but 
those of confirmation and rejection. In order to 
prevent the council from acting in conformity with 
the views of its majority. Jay resorted to the bold 
measure of adjourning their meeting, and refusing 
to call them together. He then submitted the 
question to the Legislature, asking for an explan- 
atory law ; but that body, under the impression 
that it possessed no powers in the premises, recom- 
mended the call of a convention for the purpose 
of deciding the question. The convention assem- 
bled, and the views of Chnton prevailed. 

We therefore have no reason to doubt that his 
opinion was founded on a correct interpretation of 
the words of the constitution, although, as Jay 
himself had prepared the original draught, it is cer- 
tain that such was not the intention of its framers. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 53 

It may now be conceded, that in this dispute Clin- 
ton was actuated by the motive of securing the su- 
premacy of his party, as well as that of obtaining 
a signal victory in argument over a distinguished 
and able adversary ; and, in the ardour of his strug- 
gle for superiority, neglected to examine the prob- 
able consequences. It has even been said, that the 
course he took was not approved by his uncle, who 
looked upon the subject through the calmer medi- 
um of age and experience. The victory he ob- 
tained in the construction of the constitution over 
a man of such eminence and high reputation as 
a jurist as Jay, is, however, calculated to give us 
an elevated opinion of his talent and legal learn- 
ing, however we may be disposed to question his 
prudence. 

It is due to the truth of history to say, that the 
consequences of this decision were injurious to the 
pubhc interests, and were the cause of that bit- 
terness of party spirit which has made the citizens 
of other states stigmatize the politics of New-York 
as ferocious. From this partisan rage no one suf- 
fered more severely than Dewitt Clinton, both in 
his own person and those of his friends. 

It appears by written memoranda in his own 
hand, that his views of the proper mode of action 
under the new construction of the constitution was, 
that the offices of the state should be divided be- 
tween the two opposing parties in the ratio of their 

E2 



54 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

respective numbers. On this principle lie acted, 
when he led the majority of the council of ap- 
pointment; and, could it have become the habitual 
custom, it would have prevented all the objection- 
able consequences of the measure. But that a 
triumphant party should pause in the progress of 
removing its opponents after it has obtained the 
power, is not to be expected, although there have 
been individuals who, when the appointing honour 
was vested in them, have had firmness enough to 
refuse to gratify their supporters at the expense of 
the removal of persons who were faitlifully per- 
forming their official duties. 

The effect of this construction of the constitu- 
tion was to secure the rule of the State of New- 
York to the democratic party, and, for a time, to 
give to Clinton absolute supremacy. This party 
had secured the continuance of its first successes 
by a system of discipline of the most rigid and 
efficient character. All who numbered themselves 
as its members were required to yield implicit obe- 
dience to the will of its majority; that majority was 
made to move at the beck of committees, which 
concentrated the power in the hands of a few in- 
dividuals. Denunciation as a traitor was the fate 
of him who ventured to act in conformity to his 
individual opinion, when it did not meet with the 
general sanction. So powerful was this system of 
organization, that all opposition finally ceased; and 



DEWITT CLINTON. 55 

the only question was, which of two divisions was 
in reahty the democratic party. Thus the sup- 
porters of Burr and of Lewis, in their quest of the 
office of governor, and of John Quincy Adams for 
a second term of the presidency, claimed to be the 
same republican party which chose the first as Vice- 
President of the United States, and the two others 
to their first term of office. 

Clinton's talent lay in the power of open and 
bold attacks against his adversaries, and in the ca- 
pacity of maintaining his cause by strong and well- 
arranged argument, not in the management of the 
intrigues which are necessary to unite into one ex- 
pression various conflicting opinions. In the cab- 
inet and in the council, he possessed a command- 
ing and prevailing eloquence ; in the management 
of individual temper and in popular arts, he was 
deficient. It thus happened that men of less talent, 
but of more address, secured to themselves the 
power of directing the movement of the party even 
Avhile he was its admitted chief; and when its 
measures became such as his conscience would not 
permit him to support, he became the victim of 
party usage. 

As we have been compelled to refer to the con- 
test between Clinton and Jay in relation to the 
council of appointment, it is proper to state, that, 
before the death of that distinguished statesman, 
a perfect reconciliation took place between them. 



56 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

Their estrangement had been that of party alone ; 
and personal feeling, if perhaps inseparable from 
opposition of so violent a character, was speedily 
allayed. Jay appeared no more in the field of 
political warfare, but his children w^ere subsequent- 
ly ranked among the political and personal friends 
of Clinton. 

While a member of the Assembly, Clinton was 
in the minority of that body, and in opposition not 
only to the executive of his own state, but to the 
administration of the general government. His 
course, however, was not marked by the charac- 
ter of faction. On the question of a request to the 
governor to write to the senators and representa- 
tives of the state to endeavour to obtain a repeal of 
the Stamp Act, he voted in the negative ; thus set- 
ting at naught the cry of his party, which had 
adroitly connected this mode of collecting revenue 
with the obnoxious measure of the British Parlia- 
ment bearing the same name. 

So, also, when he took his seat in the Senate of 
the state, he cordially concurred in the address to 
President Adams, pledging the support of the state 
to the maintenance of the national honour against 
French aggression. 

Of the acts whose passage he was instrumental 
in obtaining, the most important in its consequen- 
ces was that for the gradual abolition of slavery ; 
a measure which has been productive of incalcu- 



DEWITT CLINTON. 57 

lable benefit to the state, and which, although fa- 
voured by Governor Jay, he had not ventured to 
recommend in his speeches to the legislature. He 
also moved a resolution proposing the amendment 
which was soon after made in the Constitution of 
the United States, by which the President and 
Vice-President are designated in the electoral vote. 

When his authority over the dominant party of 
the state was in its acme, he was elected Senator 
of the United States. This high rank he attained 
in 1801, when but 32 years old, being one of the 
youngest men who have ever taken their seat in 
that august body. His colleague from the State 
of New- York was Gouverneur Morris, who still re- 
tained all the vigour of his faculties, and had, in 
addition, the advantage of long experience as a 
statesman and a political debater. A member of 
the old Congress, he had filled with distinguished 
ability offices of the highest trust under the fed- 
eral constitution, and was, in the Senate of the 
United States, the most eloquent, if not the most 
powerful supporter of the principles of the federal 
party. Clinton was thus placed in immediate op- 
position, and brought into direct contrast with this 
veteran debater. In this severe trial, it is sufficient- 
for the honour of Clinton to say that he was not 
worsted. 

The public opposition of these distinguished men 
did, on more than one occasion, take the form of 



58 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

almost personal attack; but in their cooler mo- 
ments, each felt the ability and acknowledged the 
sincerity of his antagonist. It thus happened that 
the very circumstances of party opposition, which 
brought into direct contact men who might other- 
wise have been estranged, led to an intimate and 
sincere friendship, the result of mutual esteem and 
admiration. Of these two remarkable statesmen, 
Clinton, although the youngest, was the most 
sound and the most practicaTpMorris, although of 
maturer years, exhibited more of an almost youth- 
ful ardour. 

The most important debate which occmTed in 
the Senate while Clinton remained a member, was 
that on the question of the navigation of the Mis- 
sissippi. By a treaty with Spain, made in 1795, 
the right of the United States to navigate that riv- 
er had been admitted, " from its source to the sea ;" 
and, in addition, the privilege of depositing mer- 
chandise in the port of New-Orleans had been 
granted for the period of three years. The same 
treaty contained a promise that this permission 
should be continued, or an equivalent establishment 
assigned to the citizens of the United States on an- 
other part of the banks of the Mississippi. 

Without any notice or the assignment of the 
promised equivalent, this right was withdrawn by 
the local Spanish authorities ; and all trade with 
American vessels navigating the Mississippi was 
interdicted. 



DEWITTCLINTON. 59 

The sensation produced by this act among the 
growing* population of the West was prodigious, 
and the leaders of the opposition in Congress saw 
in it an opportunity for regaining the popularity 
which their party had lost under the adminstration 
of Mr. Adams. A series of resolutions was moved 
in the Senate by Mr. Ross, of Pennsylvania, which 
amounted to a declaration of war against Spain. 
These resolutions were opposed by Mr. Breck- 
enridge, who moved a substitute, authorizing the 
calling out of 80,000 militia, and the estabhsh- 
ment of arsenals on the Western waters. 

In the debate which ensued, Clinton took a de- 
cided lead on the side of the administration. His 
speech delivered on this occasion is remarkable for 
its sound and luminous exposition of the state of 
the question, and of the principles of international 
law which were applicable to it. It furnished the 
basis of the speeches of the other friends of the 
administration, and its arguments met with no sat- 
isfactory reply from the opposition. The latter 
party, however, directed against Clinton the weap- 
ons of invective and irony, for which his compara- 
tive youth furnished the material. One of the 
senators from New-Jersey descended to taunting 
language, while Clinton's colleague veiled his at- 
tack under the guise of compHment to his impress- 
ive eloquence, and the ingenuous glow on his 
youthful cheek. 



60 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

Clinton continued for two years in the Senate of 
the United States, and his reputation for abihty as 
a statesman, formerly confined to the limits of his 
native state, became national. He was on all 
sides looked up to as the most rising man in the 
Union, and may reasonably have seen in perspect- 
ive the highest honours in the gift of the people. 
The close of his senatorial duties was attended 
by a controversy of a very disagreeable character 
with one of the senators from New-Jersey ; and of 
all the mere political contests in which Clinton 
was engaged, this alone seems to have left any im- 
pression of resentment on his mind. We find him 
referring to the name of his opponent many years 
afterward, although not with anger, yet in a man- 
ner which shows that the circumstance was not 
forgotten. Whatever opinion may now be formed 
of the merits of this controversy, no doubt can be 
entertained that it was provoked by the senator from 
New-Jersey, and that at a time when a generous 
antagonist would have cautiously abstained from 
attack, as it was made after it had become known 
that Clinton had accepted the mayoralty of New- 
York, and was therefore about to leave the Senate 
of the United States. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 61 



CHAPTER V. 

Clinton is appointed Mayor of the City of jYew- 
York.— Important Duties of that Office.— His 
successive Reappoimtmejits and Removals.— Fluc- 
tuations of Vmiy.— Causes of his Decline in 
Popularity.— His great AUlity as a Criminal 
Judge. — The College Riot.— His Energy as 
Head of the Police. — Threatened Riots pre- 
ventedhy his Measures of Precaution.— Aggres- 
sions of British Cruisers in the Waters ofJYew- 
York.— Breaches of Neutrality attempted hy the 
French.— Clinton's Acts on these Occasions. 

In 1803 Clinton was appointed mayor of the 
city of New-York. This office was at that time 
held by a commission from the executive of the 
state, exercised under the construction of the con- 
stitution to which we have referred by the council 
of appointment. It was of much greater impor- 
tance than it has possessed of late years. The 
mayor presided in the meetings of the Common 
Council, not yet divided into two chambers, and in 
this body he had a vote and a deliberative voice. 
A great number of valuable offices were in his di- 
rect gift; he was also the chief judge of the com- 
mon pleas and of the criminal court, as well as the 

F 



62 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

actual head of the city poUce. Circumstances 
made one of the functions which are still exer- 
cised by the mayor of New-York of much great- 
er importance than it has recently been. The 
city had been visited by the pestilence known as 
the yellow fever; and the mayor was ex officio 
chairman of the board to which, with almost ab- 
solute power, the care of the public health was 
intrusted. 

The mayoralty of New-York was not only an 
office of high tiaist, but of considerable emolu- 
ment. The old privileges granted by the royal 
charter were still in force ; and the fees of office, 
although trifling in their items, had been swelled 
by the rapid growth of the population to a large 
aggregate amount. The whole of these fees had 
been received by his predecessors in office, and 
had been in one instance almost the only basis of 
a princely fortune. The common council, howev- 
er, had the power of lowering the fees, while the 
mayor possessed similar authority over certain of 
the dues of the corporation. As the source whence 
the perquisites of the mayor were drawn hardly ap- 
peared a public burden, the corporation, while anx- 
ious to reduce the compensation of the mayor, did 
not feel called upon to lessen the fees themselves. 
A compromise was therefore proposed, and acceded 
to by CKnton, by which more than half of the 
mayor's receipts as clerk of the market went into 



DEW ITT CLINTON. 63 

the treasury of the city. It would appear that, in 
this arrangement, the emoluments of the office were 
reduced to a sum little more than has, in times pro- 
fessing a more rigid economy, been attached to 
that office in the form of a fixed salary. 

Whatever were the emoluments of the mayor- 
alty, they gave Clinton no accession of fortune. 
He felt that they were intended not to be hoarded 
for his private use, but to enable him to support the 
dignity of the office and the hospitalities of the 
city. In every part of his career, the mere accu- 
mulation of wealth was considered as an object 
unAvorthy of his attention. His expenditures ex- 
ceeded the income of his office, and he retired 
from it far from affluent in his circumstances. 

His first appointment as mayor bore date 11th 
October, 1803, and the term of the office being 
annual, he was shortly after reappointed for the 
year 1804, as he was, in due course, for 1805 and 
1806. 

In 1807, a split having taken place in the dem- 
ocratic party, he was removed from the may- 
oralty, and Smith Thompson named in his stead. 
This gentleman did not enter upon the duties of 
the office, and was superseded by the appointment 
of Colonel Willett. 

Colonel Willett held the office only for one 
year, wben he was replaced by Clinton, who was 
again reappointed in 1809. Jacob RadclifF ob- 



64 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

tained the appointment in 1810, and Clinton, re- 
placing him in 18 1 1, was continued in it until 6th 
March, 1815. During all this period, with the 
exception of the year 1810, when the federalists 
obtained a momentary ascendency, a party claim- 
ing to be democratic possessed the appointing 
power. Clinton, however, was successful in main- 
taining, up to 1813, what was admitted to be the 
true succession of the party, and, as often as it 
overwhelmed its opponents, was replaced in his 
important office. 

This ascendency was not maintained without 
severe struggles, into which not only public mo- 
tives, but personal feelings also, entered. Burr 
had been, up to the election of Jefferson, the favour- 
ite of the democratic party of New-York, and had, 
by the fascination of his manners, collected around 
him a knot of young men possessing talents, ener- 
gy, and reckless courage beyond any wdiich has 
ever been united in the support of any other poli- 
tician. Although Burr had lost the confidence of 
the creneral administration, he still endeavoured to 
maintain his stand with the democratic party of 
the State of New-York. In this attempt he was 
met and frustrated by Clinton and his friends. A 
schism thus arising among individuals, many of 
whom had been in habits of the closest intimacy, 
both social and political, could not fail to be at- 
tended with mutual recriminations. These, in 



DEWITT CLINTON. 65 

several cases, passed the limits of forbearance, and 
hostile meetings were the consequence. In these 
combats Clinton was compelled, by his position, 
to take his share. Public opinion had not been 
declared, as it has since so formally been, against 
the code of duelhng. So far from its being the 
general sense that duels were improper, it would 
have been fatal to any politician had he refused, 
when called upon for any cause considered suf- 
ficient in the code of honour, to meet the aggriev- 
ed party, or had he submitted to a technical in- 
sult without demanding satisfaction. This state 
of public feeling was at once put an end to by the 
death of Hamilton, w^ho fell by the hand of the 
leader of that band, with which Clinton and his 
friends had been previously engaged in similar 
conflicts. 

The division in the party, which led to the re- 
moval of Clinton from the office of mayor in 1807, 
grew out of the course of Governor Lew^is, who, 
strong in his fortune, family, and connexions, as 
well as in the remembrance of his revolutionary 
services, ventured to act independently. In order 
to replace him, the leaders of the party selected 
Daniel D. Tompkins, at that time the junior judge 
of the Supreme Court of the State. According to 
his opponents, he was selected because he possess- 
ed none of the attributes w^hich had led Lewis to 
refuse to submit to dictation. If, however, Chnton 

F2 



66 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

and his friends had hoped to find in Tompkins a 
pliant and submissive tool, whom they might use 
for a time and discard at pleasure, they were mis- 
taken. Tompkins, with no remarkable native 
powers of mind, and but little acquirement even 
as a lawyer, possessed, in a most eminent degree, 
the art of ingratiating himself with the people. 
He had the faculty, which is invaluable to him 
who seeks for popular honours, of never forgetting 
the name or face of any person with whom he had 
once conversed ; of becoming acquainted and ap- 
pearing to take an interest in the concerns of their 
families; and of securing, by his affability and 
amiable address, the good opinion of the female 
sex, who, although possessed of no vote, often 
exercise a powerful indirect influence. Clinton, 
on the other hand, absorbed in lofty contempla- 
tions, was often absent in mind, was forgetful of 
persons and all but familiar faces, and could not 
condescend to know the secrets of famihes. 

Delightful in his hours of relaxation and in the 
society of his intimate friends, he found it difficult 
to unbend himself with strangers, and set too high 
a value on his time to exchange the news of the day, 
or bandy jests with those transacting business with 
him as mayor. Such traits of character, although 
often inseparable from genius and learning, are 
unfortunate in one who seeks for popular favour. 
Clinton was thus rendered hable to the accusation 



DEWITT CLINTON. 67 

of pride and haughtiness, when, in fact, only guilty 
of abstraction of mind and want of ease in his 
manners. 

The time at last came when his influence, sup- 
ported by mental superiority and honesty of pur- 
pose, was to yield to the popular talents of Tomp- 
kins. The administration of Madison resolved 
upon a war with Great Britain. For this, in the 
opinion of Clinton, there existed no new cause. 
He viewed with dismay the unprepared condition of 
the country, and the vast extent of exposed fron- 
tier of his native state. We now may consider it 
as one of the most fortunate occurrences which 
have ever happened for the prosperity and char- 
acter of the United States, that war was declared 
at this juncture against Great Britain. It was 
justifiable, not by any new occurrences, but by a 
long course of aggressions. The only true ques- 
tion was, whether Britain or France should be se- 
lected as an enemy, for both had been equally 
guilty. 

On this point there had been a w^ide difference 
of opinion in the United States, and it had become 
the line of party demarcation. The federalists 
had been desirous that hostilities should be com- 
menced against France, and had even, under the 
administration of John Adams, authorized the cap- 
ture of French vessels. The democratic party, on 
the other hand, had desired that, if war must take 



68 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

place, it should be against England. With this 
party Chnton had uniformly acted, and had, in 
fact, led it in the State of New-York. His opin- 
ions on this point were unchanged, but he seems 
to have desired that the country should have been 
first put in a posture of preparation, which might 
have either extorted redress from Great Britain, 
or would have ensured success in the event of a 
w^ar. His views and acts in reference to this ques- 
tion will be considered more fully hereafter, and 
we shall find that he differed from the administra- 
tion only in a desire that a greater degree of en- 
ergy should be infused into its councils. The 
votes of his friends in Congress fully justify this 
view of the subject, as well as the recollections of 
his intimates. As, however, he was in opposition 
to the administration at the time war was decla- 
red, being actually nominated as a candidate for 
the Presidency in opposition to Madison, this fact 
was adroitly seized to injure him. 

If he had even been opposed to the declaration 
of war, as were many of unquestioned patriotism 
at the time, he might have been fully justified. 
The fears which many entertained of danger ari- 
sing from our exposed and unprepared position, 
were shown to be well founded by the events of 
the first campaigns. It is not by the acquisitions 
obtained in that war, either in territory or in the 
terms of the peace by which it was ended, th?t its 



DEWITT CLINTON. 69 

consequences on our national character are to be 
measured. We added nothing to our former 
boundaries, and the principles on which Great 
Britain justified her aggressions on neutrals were 
not even a subject of discussion in the negotiations 
of Ghent; peace was in fact made without the 
formal acquisition of any one of the objects for 
which hostilities were commenced; but, on the 
other hand, our national honour was maintained; 
cur reputation as first in maritime warfare, and the 
equals in courage of our British ancestors, estab- 
lished ; while the more important result was ob- 
tained, that from that time, all feeling other than 
one purely American ceased to be entertained by 
our citizens. Up to the war of 1812, the leaven 
of the old disputes of the revolution was still work- 
ing, and the most honest politicians could hardly 
avoid looking to international questions as parti- 
sans of either England or France ; and, even if 
no such motive existed in their own minds, their 
political opponents were sure to charge them with 
it, and thus force them to defend a position they 
had not chosen. As an illustration of this state of 
things, we may refer to the debate which has al- 
ready been cited upon the Mississippi question, 
where w^e find the two parties mutually accusing 
each other of subserviency to the belligerents of 
Europe ; and fears of the am.bition of Bonaparte on 
the one hand, or complaints of the tyranny of 



70 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

Great Britain on the other, taking the place of 
sound argument on American grounds. 

We still know aged men who firmly believe 
that all the federal party were identical with the 
Tories of the revolution, and others who associate 
their democratic opponents with the Jacobins oi 
France. The war of 1812 put an end to this 
state of things. In the contests of party, no ques- 
tion is now debated except on the ground of its 
bearings on the interests of our own country, and 
the accusation of being subservient to foreign in- 
fluence is no longer urged against an adversary, 
not because the weapon of misrepresentation has 
ceased to be employed in politics, but because such 
charges could no longer receive belief 

Clinton filled the office of mayor and performed 
its functions highly to his own credit and to the 
advantage of the community. His conduct in 
presiding over the deliberations of the common 
council was marked with dignity, decision, and 
impartiality, warranting the support of his political 
firiends, and conciliating the suffrages of his adver- 
saries. As presiding judge of the criminal court, 
he secured the respect of the bar for his legal 
learning and ability; he was prompt in the de- 
spatch of business, yet patient in listening to the 
criminal's defence ; while the poor and friendless 
found in their judge a counsel, the rich and pow- 
erfully connected derived from their social advan- 



DEWITT CLINTON. 71 

tages no immunity from merited punishment. 
The latter attribute he had an opportunity of ex- 
hibiting in a memorable instance. 

At the Commencement of Columbia College in 
1811, a disturbance occurred in the church where 
the ceremony was performed. A student who 
had been refused his degree in a pubhc manner, 
found a supporter in one of the audience, who 
mounted the stage, and appealed to the assem- 
blage from the acts of the provost. Dr. Mason. 
Others speedily joined in the clamour. The pro- 
vost, in attempting to restore order, was driven 
from the stage ; and the proceedings of the day, 
although finished, for form's sake, from the pulpit 
by the president, were drowned by noise and 
clamour. 

The acts of several of the parties were thought 
by a grand jury to warrant an indictment for riot, 
and the accused were tried before Clinton. The 
cause was defended on the ground of resistance to 
oppression ; and the parties were of such standing 
and promise — a promise in several of them well 
confirmed by their subsequent brilliant career — as to 
excite the greatest interest in their behalf. Fears 
were even entertained by those who knew not his 
stern principles of rectitude, that the judge, from his 
known respect for the popular voice, or under the 
influence of private friendship, might have failed 
in seeing the cause in a true light. Such fears 



72 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

were groundless. While the trial was conducted 
in such a manner as to allow the accused every 
means of defence, the charge to the jury pointed 
out in such clear and convincing terms the char- 
acter of the offence, that no hesitation was felt in 
convicting them. In awarding the punishment, 
Chnton is said to have long hesitated whether he 
were not called upon by regard to justice to inflict 
the disgrace of imprisonment as a part. Mature 
reflection satisfied him that every desirable end 
could be attained by the imposition of a fine ; but 
this was imposed in an address conveying such 
severe, merited, and pointed reprimand, as was 
well calculated to prevent the recurrence of a 
similar offence by any parties possessed of the 
feelings of honour and of the lofty intelligence 
which marked those who had thus become the 
subjects of his censure. 

The most important legal question which came 
before him as judge of the criminal court, was one 
having regard to liberty of conscience. A Roman 
Catholic priest was called upon to disclose what 
had been communicated to him under the seal of 
confession. Clinton on this occasion sustained, in 
opposition to British decisions, the sanctity of that 
sacrament, as it is held to be by that church, and 
was subsequently mainly instrumental in doing 
away, by legislative action, the disabilities to which 
professors of the Catholic faith were still subjected 



DEWITT CLINTON. 73 

by laws and practices arising from British statutes 
which lay unrepealed. 

Clinton, as chief of the police of a large and 
populous city, appeared to no less advantage than 
as a criminal judge. At fires, and all unusual as- 
semblages where disorder might be apprehended, 
he was to be found, not to repress riots actually 
begun, but in time to prevent their occurrence. 
When the mere majesty of the law appeared to be 
likely to be insufficient, he took early and prompt 
measures to have at his disposal a sufficient civic 
force, and for calling on the uniformed companies 
as a reinforcement in case of need. 

As an instance of his promptitude in such cases, 
the riot in James-street may be cited. This had 
begun in boarding-houses for seamen; and that 
brave, but thoughtless and turbulent race, had beat- 
en and put to flight the police. On receiving in- 
telhgence of the fact, Clinton, after making pro- 
vision for calling out the ti^oops, hurried to the spot 
attended by such civil officers as he could mus- 
ter. On his way through Chatham-street he met 
some officers of the fourth regiment of militia, 
which had paraded that afternoon at Corlaer's 
Hook, and had just been dismissed. Collecting 
these to the number of about a dozen, he formed 
them in a line across the street, placed the band 
which had attended the regiment behind them, 
and, ordering it to play a charge, led the way to 

G 



74 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

the scene of riot. The mob, aware of his pres- 
ence, and deceived by the judicious exhibition of 
force when there was in reahty none, dispersed 
without resistance, and the leaders were captured. 
A few minutes' delay would probably have ren- 
dered it necessary to have recourse to bloodshed. 
As it was, he gallantly exposed himself to no lit- 
tle personal risk. 

As the probabihty of a war with Great Britain 
increased, those, who recollected the tumultuous 
scenes of the breaking out of the Revolution, when 
law was for a time suspended ; who had heard 
threats of personal violence uttered against obnox- 
ious persons, which threats were not always vain ; 
and particularly those who had themselves suffer- 
ed from the cruelty of the partisans of the British 
government, began to speak openly of taking the 
opportunity of the breaking out of hostilities to 
gratify their long-suppressed revenge. Obnoxious 
persons were publicly named, and their houses 
marked out for pillage. In this juncture, Clinton 
had a difficult part to play. He was a candidate 
for the presidency in opposition to Madison, while 
the leaders of the democratic party in the city had 
espoused the cause of that gentleman. He saw in 
those who uttered threats his old associates in the 
democratic party, and among them those who had 
influence sufficient either to denounce him or secure 
him its support. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 75 

The persons thus threatened were those of the 
old Tory faction, who had never joined themselves 
to the democratic party. To such as had, free im- 
munity was granted. By the slightest neglect of 
precautionary measures, Clinton therefore had it in 
his power to conciliate old friends and prevent a 
rupture with them, as well as to punish some of 
his most active political opponents. Clinton, how- 
ever, had too high a regard for his duty to slumber 
at his post. No sooner had the slightest symptoms 
of popular commotion appeared, than he took the 
most prompt measures to preserve the public peace. 
These were successful ; but they had the effect of 
utterly estranging from him the managers of the 
party with which, from his earliest manhood, he 
had been associated, and of which he had for 
years been the acknowledged leader. As he could 
not be openly blamed for preserving the quiet of 
the city, he was accused of giving rise to a ground- 
less alarm ; and the very persons who pointed out 
by name the objects of their attack, were now 
heard declaring that no intention of violence or 
pillage had ever been entertained. 

In the earliest years of his mayoralty, Clinton 
found himself compelled to exercise the duties of 
a diplomatist in addition to the various duties with 
which he was loaded. The renewal of the war 
between Great Britain and France, if it did not 
give rise to intrigues, as on the former occasion, 



76 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

for the purpose of drawing the United States into 
the contest as a party, placed the country under 
the necessity of asserting, by steady and impartial 
measures, its neutral character. The French had, 
at the breaking out of hostilities, an army and 
a fleet in St. Domingo. In attempting to with- 
draw this force in the face of the superior power 
of Great Britain, single vessels and squadrons 
touched at the port of New-York. Among the 
rest, two fine frigates anchored in the bay, among 
whose officers was Jerome Bonaparte, the brother 
of the first consul, and subsequently King of West- 
phalia. The cupidity of the British officers on the 
Halifax station was increased by the hopes of this 
rich prize, and a squadron actually entered into the 
bay in pursuit of them. For a moment, apprehen- 
sions were entertained that our waters would have 
been the scene of a hostile attack, such as the 
British afterward made the Bay of Valparaiso. 
Clinton permitted the French vessels to anchor un- 
der the guns of Fort Jay; and, to prevent the 
breach of neutrality consequent on the French ves- 
sels being followed out, required from the British 
commanders a promise not to sail until 24 hours 
after the French vessels should have proceeded to 
sea. On this being refused, he issued orders to the 
pilots not to carry them to sea. In consequence 
of these decisive measures, the British squadron 
left the anchorage at the quarantine-ground, and 



DEWITT CLINTON. 77 

blockaded the harbour. The French vessels sub- 
sequently made their escape through the Sound : 
and here again Clinton was compelled to interfere, 
by directing the commander of Fort Jay to allow 
them to enter the East River. Numerous other 
aggressions were committed by British cruisers, 
which, on more than one occasion, threatened to 
lead to popular tumults, retaliating on British 
residents the offensive acts of their countrymen. 
Among other instances, an American seaman was 
killed within the jurisdiction of the United Sates 
by a shot from the Leander. 

On the other hand, the French officers exhibited 
a spirit as little consistent with regard for neutral 
rights as the English, although they had less pow- 
er to carry it into effect. Clinton was thus in- 
volved in correspondence with the commercial 
agents of the two belligerant nations ; compelled 
to adopt measures of military opposition to their 
aggressions, and, at the same time, to restrain the 
popular feeling. His course on this occasion is 
marked with dignity and decision, and his corre- 
spondence exhibits his accustomed ability. 

G2 



78 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Origin of the Public School Society of J^ew- 
Yorlc- — It is Chartered. — Is founded on Private 
Contributions. — Clinton's Agency in obtaining 
them. — Gift from the Corporation of JYew- 
York, and Grant from the State Legislature. — 
Reflections on the System of Common Schools. 
— Turnpike from Poughkeepsie to Kingsbridge. 

While mayoF of the City of New-York, Clin- 
ton took the lead in the promotion of numerous im- 
portant public objects. To the aid of these he not 
only brought his talents as a writer, his personal 
exertions, and the whole weight of his political 
influence, but contributed, when necessary, freely 
from his private purse. Among these, the Free 
School Association, as well from the direct and 
immediate benefits it produced, as from having 
been the first step towards that system which now 
includes the whole state in its beneficent influence, 
is most worthy of notice. 

The Lancasterian method of instruction was ma- 
king a great noise in Europe, and excited, in par- 
ticular, the attention of the members of the Society 
of Friends. In the year 1804, two influential and 
benevolent men of this persuasion, the late John 



DEWITT CLINTON. 79 

Murray, Jr., and Thomas Eddy, conceived the idea 
of introducing that method into the City of New- 
York. CUnton was immediately consulted by 
them, and saw at once the vast amount of benefit 
which might be derived from the successful intro- 
duction of this system. He therefore drew up the 
plan of an association, for the purpose of providing 
gratuitous instruction for such poor children as 
did not fall within the sphere of any of the char- 
ity schools then existing in the city. In the list of 
this association his name stands first, and he was 
its first presiding officer. 

As a charter was necessary to ensure success, 
preparations were made for applying to the Legis- 
lature ', and Governor Lewis made the subject a 
prominent feature of his message in January, 1805. 
With wise and liberal views, he went beyond the 
immediate objects of the association, and pointed 
out to the Legislature the value of a general sys- 
tem of common schools, backing his recommenda- 
tion by the authority of his predecessor, George 
Clinton. 

In consequence of this recommendation, and the 
personal exertions of its friends, a charter was 
granted in April, 1805, in the preamble to which, 
Clinton is named as having applied for it. No 
farther legislative aid was granted at the time ; and 
it became necessary, in order to carry the objects 
of the association into effect, to have recoui'se to 



80 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

private contributions. In the labour of solicitation 
and explanation necessary for such a purpose, and 
in the irksome task of begging from door to door 
Clinton took more than his share. In company 
with Frederic Depeyster, another of the associ- 
ates, he called personally upon many of the citi- 
zens, and did not cease from his exertions until no 
more funds could be collected. The list of De- 
peyster and Clinton exhibited subscriptions to the 
amount of $4910. 

His influence with the corporation of the city, 
over whose deliberations he then presided, w^as 
next brought into action, and a grant of an old 
building, formerly used as an arsenal, with a dona- 
tion of $2000 in money, was obtained. 

In the year 1806, Clinton, having taken his seat 
in the Senate of the state, was named chairman of 
a committee to which a petition of the Free-school 
Society for aid was referred. In this capacity he 
made a most able and conclusive report, in which 
the importance of the institution to the public was 
exhibited in so clear a light, that a bill was passed, 
by which an immediate appropriation of $ 12,000, 
vdth an annuity of $ 1500 per annum, was granted 
to the society. 

This was the germ of the pubUc schools of the 
city of New-York, now so flourishing, and the ba- 
sis on which the great system of common schools 
throughout the state was founded. The success of 



.DEWITT CLINTON. §1 

the first public school was unexampled in training 
up to habits of industry and morality, youth who 
might otherwise have fallen into idleness and vice. 
At the end of twenty years from its foundation, it 
was the proud boast of Clinton, then governor of 
the state, m a message to the Legislature, that out 
of the many thousands who had received instruc- 
tion in the public schools, none had ever been con- 
victed of a criminal offence. 

The success of the public school in New-York 
led to Its speedy imitation in Albany and Troy • 
and the obvious benefits which the several estab- 
ishmente conferred on the communitv, furnished 
the most powerful inducements for th; accumula- 
tion of such a fund as might spread similar advan- 
tages throughout the state. It is unnecessary to 
enter into an exhibition of the immense value 
which the common schools have been to the State 
of New-York. Their importance is admitted on all 
hands; and, where the right of suffrage is univer- 
sal, the only security for liberty is to be found in an 
equally universal diffusion of the blessinP-s of edu- 
cation.* ° 

The common school system has not, however, 

acres nf ! Kl , T ' ''^ ^ '«g'«"ative grant of 600,000 

acres of pobl.c lands ; and it has accumulated from this and 

her sonrees, until it is justly doubted whether it be e pedtant 

to increase it any farther. t^j^peuienc 



82 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

yet attained that degree of excellence of which it 
is capable, and there are certain obvious defects in 
its management which call for a remedy. 

The public school of New- York was originally 
instituted to supply a positive want. The several 
rehgious congregations had, with great liberality, 
founded free-schools, erecting buildings and pur- 
chasing land. Those of the Reformed Dutch, 
Presbyterian, and Episcopal churches were flour- 
ishing, although far from being sufficient even for 
those in their respective communions. They de- 
rived their support from annual collections. The 
Catholics had also commenced a similar system; 
and, although possessed of less comparative wealth, 
exhibited a noble spirit of liberality. When the 
school fund was first applied, all these institutions 
received support from it in the ratio of the num- 
bers of their respective scholars, and a generous 
emulation ensued to raise the character of the ed- 
ucation they furnished, as by this alone, in most of 
the cases, could they obtain a preference from 
the scholars. 

By a most unfortunate change, the whole appro- 
priation was vested in the public schools, and the 
support afforded by it to those of the several Chris- 
tian denominations withdrawn. The free-schools 
therefore fell back to their original state, or were 
abandoned altogether. Hundreds of active and 
zealous advocates of education have been with- 



DEWITT CLINTON. 83 

drawn from the cause, and the pubhc schools them- 
selves do not appear to have derived any propor- 
tionate accession in numbers. The blow has fallen 
hardest upon the Catholics. The children of this 
numerous and, unluckily, as a mass, ignorant por- 
tion of our population, are thereby debarred, by 
scruples of conscience, from all access to that 
education for which they are taxed in proportion 
to their means. In mere principle, although in 
amount small, the hardship is as great as that 
which some of them have fled to avoid in the 
country of their nativity, that of paying for the 
support of a clergy whose ministry they repudiate. 
To say that the schools are open to their children 
is a repetition of the remark that the Protestant 
churches are open to them in Ireland ; their con- 
sciences equally prevent their entering either. 

It will be only when all religious feeling can be 
satisfied, that the great and final step of the school 
system can be taken, namely, to render it penal in 
any parent not to avail himself of the benefits it 
holds out to his children. Such has been the law 
for centuries in Switzerland, and has been the most 
efficient cause of the maintenance of its free insti- 
tutions while in actual contact vnth the most pow- 
erful and absolute monarchies of Europe. They 
have been supported by their moral strength, long 
after physical resistance w^ould have ceased to de- 
fend them. 



84 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

So far, then, from withdrawing the benefits of 
the school fund from sectarian estabhshments, all 
denominations of Christians ought to be encour- 
aged to found schools, and be entitled, as formerly, 
to a proportionate share of the fund. No denom- 
ination can except to this ; for, as each is satisfied 
that its own tenets are correct, it ought to be 
pleased at the diffusion of that intelligence by 
which its orthodoxy may be tested. 

Another obvious defect in the system is its en- 
tire separation from all the institutions for educa- 
tion of a higher character. It thus limits those 
whose parents are not possessed of competence, to 
the very elements of learning ; shuts them out from 
all the learned professions ; and debars them from 
all chance of attaining political eminence by legit- 
imate means. Under the aspect of the purest de- 
mocracy, it lays the foundation of an aristocracy 
of learninof, into which the children of the rich 
alone are admitted. 

Those who are conversant with the workings 
of the two systems, are aware of the wide and im- 
passable barrier which separates those who are ed- 
ucated in the common schools from those who find 
their elementary instruction in private seminaries, 
and subsequently complete their courses in colleges. 
Feelings of contempt on the one hand, and of envy 
on the other, are fostered ; and, on attaining man- 
hood, the youth of the republic are obviously ar- 
rayed in two distinct and almost hostile classes. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 85 

In order that the common school system should 
be perfect, it ought, as might readily be effected, 
to give an elementary education superior to that of 
any private school, and thus make it the interest 
even of the richest to send their children to the 
public schools. It should next be brought into 
the closest connexion with the chartered academies 
and colleges, by giving, as a reward for proficien- 
cy in knowledge, the right of continuing the studies, 
begun in the common schools, in the higher semi- 
naries. Some of our colleges have, with great 
liberality, tendered free scholarships to the trustees 
of the public schools ; but the boon has not produ- 
ced its proper result, because the intermediate 
academies are inaccessible. 

It is only in this way that a proper supply of 
competent teachers for the common schools can be 
obtained. It unluckily happens, that the profes- 
sion of a teacher does not confer a standing in so- 
ciety which will compensate for its trifling emolu- 
ment. Teachers in the State of New-York^ will 
alone be found among those who are preparing 
themselves for professions of a character more re- 
spected by the community, or who may have been 
unsuccessful in such professions. The youth whose 
talents will fit him for a teacher, will not consent 
that an occupation, whose professors he sees al- 
most loaded with indignity, shall be the limit of 
his wishes. We therefore can anticipate no good 

H 



86 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

result from the establishment of separate schools for 
teachers ; but, if the talented and industrious mem- 
bers of the common schools be passed to the acad- 
emies, and the most distinguished of them, in turn, 
to the colleges, many seeking knowledge with 
more ambitious views, would, in the very nature 
of things, fall into the body of teachers. 

From the time that he became an associate and 
the first president of the Public School Society of 
New- York, Clinton w^as unwearied in his labours 
to promote the cause of education. As mayor of 
the city, as senator, and as governor of the state, 
he made every fair use of the influence of his sta- 
tion to increase the school fund and extend its 
benefits. Standing almost alone at first, he was 
joined in the end by such numbers, and the influ- 
ence finally became so powerful, as to overleap 
the bounds he would himself have set to it, and to 
monopolize patronage, of which a part might have 
been extended, with greater public benefit, to insti- 
tutions of more elevated character. Thus, while 
the school system has been so successful that one 
fourth of the whole numerical population is inclu- 
ded in the lists of its pupils, the number of incor- 
porated academies has not increased, nor that of 
the scholars who attend them. This has reacted 
upon the common schools themselves, by render- 
ing it impossible to procure a sufficient number of 
competent teachers. 



DEW ITT CLINTON. 87 

The communication between the cities of New- 
York and Albany, so easy while the Hudson River 
is open, is, during the winter, extremely difficult. 
This attracted the attention of Clinton ; and a peti- 
tion, drawn and headed by him, was presented to 
the legislature in the year 1805, for the incorpora- 
tion of the Highland Turnpike Co., to make a 
road from Poughkeepsie to Kingsbridge. The 
charter was granted, and funds nearly adequate 
to the purpose were raised. By mismanagement 
on the part of the directors, they were exhausted 
before the most difficult part of the road was com- 
pleted. Still, the travel in winter on the east side of 
the Hudson, which was formerly attended with 
great danger, has, since the passage of that act, 
been rendered more easy and safe. This was all 
that the state of the times and of the art of engi- 
neering would permit. Had CUnton been now 
living, and possessed of the influence he then ex- 
erted, we should probably, ere this, have seen our 
commercial metropolis united with the seat of 
government by a railroad. The same enlighten- 
ed policy which dictated the construction of the 
Erie Canal in 1807, would have urged the neces- 
sity of this measure at the public cost, and would 
not have left the southwestern tier of counties to 
seek an outlet to the market of New- York throuoh 
the imperfect and ineffectual method of a chartered 
company, which, if unsuccessful, would be a total 



88 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

waste of capital, and if successful, an odious mo- 
nopoly. The circumstances of the times in which 
he lived did not call for any exposition of his 
views on such subjects to the citizens of our own 
state, but the arguments he addressed to the in- 
habitants of New-Jersey and Ohio contain much 
practical wisdom, which is exactly suited to the 
present state of affairs in New-York. 



DE WITT CLINTON. 89 



CHAPTER VII. 

Clinton is elected a Member of the State Senate. 
— Incorporation of the Sailors' Snug Harbour. 
— Law rewjoving the Incapacities of Roman 
Catholics. — Charter of the Manumission Socie- 
ty ; of the Cincinnati. — Grant for an Insane 
Hospital. — Charter of the Eagle Fire Insurance 
Company. — Grant for the Defence of the Har- 
bour of JYew-York. — Academy of Fine Arts 
Incorporated.— Clinton is named a Director, and 
subsequently President of the Academy. — Char- 
ter of the American Fur Company. — Burial of 
the Remains of the Prisoners in the Jersey 
Hulk. 

At the election held in 1805, Clinton was 
chosen a Senator cvf the state for the Southern 
District, which office he held along with that of 
mayor of the city of New- York. The Legislature, 
as usual, was not convened until 1806, when he 
took his seat. We have already had occasion to 
speak of his acts in this capacity in reference to 
the Public School Society of New-York. This 
was far from being the only important object 
which engaged his attention and received his sup- 
port. From the first moment of his entering that 

H2 



90 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

body, he took a decided lead in its deliberations, 
and furnished the draught of many of the laws 
which originated in the upper house. Some of 
these are even yet of interest, and require a notice 
from us, which we shall give in order. 

A benevolent individual of the name of R an- 
dall, had, by will, bequeathed a property, which 
has now become of immense value, to trustees, for 
the purpose of establishing an hospital for seamen, 
under the name of the " Sailors' Snug Harbour." 
His heirs, if any could be found, were certainly 
foreigners j and thus, if the will were void, the real 
estate conveyed in it must have escheated to the 
state. It appeared possible that the bequest might 
be rendered null, from the fact that the will had 
the air of creating a corporation, by vesting the es- 
tate in a permanent body, composed of certain of- 
ficial personages, and not in individual trustees. 
Other legal difficulties stood in the way, which 
also required legislative action. Under the con- 
viction that the bequest would be of great public 
benefit, Clinton introduced a bill conferring cor- 
porate powers on the trustees named in the will, 
and thus removing all doubts as to the title to the 
property. This corporation, after having carefully 
nursed its property for several years, has at last 
been enabled to carry into effect the intentions of 
its founder; and the name of Clinton might, with 
propriety, be placed alongside of that of Randall, 



DEWITT CLINTON. 91 

as having secured the application of his legacy to 
its intended object. 

Under the royal government of the colony of 
New-York, certain laws had been passed intend- 
ed to prevent the settlement of Roman Catho- 
lics, or, at least, debarring them from the privilege 
of voting. These disqualifications still existed; for 
the forms of abjuration intended to operate against 
Jesuit missionaries were retained at the revolution 
as a security against those who were unwilling to 
disavow their allegiance to the King of England. 
By the exertions of Clinton, a law drawn by him- 
self was passed, which repealed the provision of- 
fensive to the conscience of Roman Catholics. 

An association for promoting the manumission 
of slaves had existed for several years in the city 
of New-York, but had not obtained a charter. 
An act of incorporation was now introduced by 
Clinton and passed. He also drew and intro- 
duced a bill to charter the Society of the Cincin- 
nati. This association of the officers of the revo- 
lutionary army had been held together by the 
mere consent of its members, and is still prevented 
from fulfilling, in a beneficial manner, the char- 
itable objects of its institution. It had at one 
time been held up to the public as an attempt to 
found an order of nobility, and had been stigma- 
tized as aristocratic; although, in fact, no more 
than an association for social and benevolent pur- 



92 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

poses. So great was the prejudice which had 
been excited against it by these gratuitous attacks, 
that it does not appear probable that any member 
of the democratic party, except CUnton, would 
have had the courage to propose that it should be 
incorporated. 

The attempt to obtain a charter for this honour- 
able and praiseworthy association failed; for even 
the influence of Clinton, and his entire possession 
of the confidence of the democratic party, were 
insufficient to overcome the feelings of distrust 
with which it was regarded. 

It is thus a curious feature in the records of 
our legislative proceedings, that, while the natives 
of every European country which has furnished 
any large number of settlers have been incorpora- 
ted by charter for mutual relief and for keeping 
up the recollections of their fatherlands, with the 
provision for continuing the privilege to their chil- 
dren, the officers of that army by which the inde- 
pendence of our country had been achieved should 
be denied a charter. Those who opposed the as- 
sociation at its beginning feared that the feelings 
of gratitude so justly due to those who had spent 
their blood, their fortunes, and the prime of their 
life in the revolutionary contest, might have in- 
vested them and their descendants with the influ- 
ence of an order of nobility; but they did not 
foresee that in this case, at least, America was to 



DEWITT CLINTON. 93 

furnish no exception to the proverbial ingratitude 
of repubhcs. 

Up to the year 1806, the State of New-York 
had possessed no hospital for the treatment of in- 
sane patients. The severest infliction with which 
the human race is visited had its victims thus ex- 
posed to unnecessary restraints and cruel inflic- 
tions. The trustees of the Hospital in the city of 
New- York now applied to the Legislature for aid 
in effecting the humane object of providing an 
asylum for the lunatic. The petition was referred 
by the Senate to a committee, of which Clinton was 
chairman. He made a report, in which the neces- 
sity of legislative assistance was forcibly set forth, 
and, in conformity with the report, grants were 
made, which enabled the trustees of the Hospital 
to erect and support an asylum for the insane. 
By means of this grant, a splendid and commo- 
dious building has been erected at Bloomingdale, 
where it stands as a monument of the wise benefi- 
cence of the Legislature. 

Among the scourges to which the City of New- 
York has been exposed, one of the most destruc- 
tive is fire. The inflammable nature of the mate- 
rials employed in building, together with the ne- 
cessity of providing against the severity of our 
winter climate, has made conflagrations of fre- 
quent occurrence and destructive violence. The 
system of mutual assurance had been adopted as 



94 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

a partial remedy, but the more economic mode of 
ensuring at a fixed premium could at that time be 
only effected through the agency of a company 
established in London. The public convenience 
called loudly for a local institution, which should 
undertake this important and useful business. The 
main difficulty was to find persons of sufficient 
capital who would be willing to become liable 
to the full extent of their property in a business of 
so great a risk ; and there was, as yet, no instance 
of the business having been conducted by a char- 
ter, under which the associates would be liable 
only to the extent of their subscriptions. To meet 
the case, Clinton, at the request of a number of 
respectable inhabitants of New-York, drew, and 
procured the passage of, the charter of the Eagle 
Insurance Company. This has since served as 
the model for the incorporation of a number of 
other companies, which have been of great benefit 
to the community, and yielded good profit to their 
stockholdei^, until, after the lapse of 30 years from 
the establishment of the first, their capitals were 
swept away by the great conflagration of Decem- 
ber, 1835. Even then they were the means of 
preserving many of the mercantile community 
from entire destruction. 

The difficulties of which we have spoken, which 
arose from the acts of British and French cruisers, 
were in a great measure owning to the exposed 



DEWITT CLINTON. 95 

condition of the Bay of New- York. The only 
work of any consequence provided by the general 
government for its defence was Fort Jay, on Gov- 
ernor's Island. The city was in a measure safe from 
aggression, except by a strong force, by batteries 
on the water's edge, but the safe anchorage at the 
Watering-place was wholly exposed. Here the 
British actually impressed seamen, and the French 
broke by force the sanitary regulations of the quar- 
antine ; while, as we have seen, fears were enter- 
tained that an attack would have been made on 
vessels under the very guns of Fort Jay. The 
general government showed a culpable negligence 
in respect to this question. The importance of 
New- York in a military and commercial light, has, 
in general, rather excited the jealousy of other 
states than led to liberal measures for its protec- 
tion. It was obvious that it was only by fortifica- 
tions at the Narrows that security from the unpun- 
ished violation of our interior waters could be ob- 
tained. To this object Clinton turned his atten- 
tion, and drew up an able report on the defence 
of the harbour of New- York. This was present- 
ed by him to the Senate, and led to the passage, in 
1808, of an act containing an appropriation of 
$100,000 for the defence of that important pass. 

Military critics have since found fault with the 
selection of the position where this fortification 
was erected. In this criticism they have forgotten 



96 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

the object for which it was erected, which was to 
command and cover the Watering-place and Quar- 
antine ground, not to attempt the much more diffi- 
cult task of closing the Narrows to the entrance of 
a foreign fleet. For the first of these objects, the 
position chosen is sufficient, and the only one that 
is so ; while, in the second, it forms an essential 
and all-important feature. The occupation of 
Staten Island in such a manner that it cannot be 
easily seized by an enemy, is, besides, a most im- 
portant object in the defence of the City of New- 
York. It formed, in 1776, a species of Ute de pont, 
in which the British forces were quietly collected 
as they dropped in from a long voyage, and where 
they were organized and recruited in health for 
their final attack through Long Island. 

In the commission named for fortifying the Nar- 
rows, Chnton's name appears, and he filled an im- 
portant place in its deliberations, although the de- 
tails of the fortifications themselves necessarily fell 
to the charge of the chief-engineer of the United 
States, General Williams. 

As early as 1801, an association had been form- 
* ed in the City of New-York for the encourage- 
ment of the fine arts. Liberal contributions had 
been made by individuals, and a fine collection of 
casts from the antique had been procured. In ad- 
dition, Vanderlyn had been employed to make 
copies of some of the best pictures in the Louvre, 



DEWITT CLINTON. 97 

while Napoleon, at that time First Consul of France, 
had presented, through Chancellor Livingston, a 
splendid collection of engravings. The institution 
had languished for want of a local habitation, and 
its administration was impeded by the want of le- 
gal facilities. Clinton now took this institution un- 
der his protection. He obtained a charter for it, and 
a grant of apartments in the Government House. 
This building had been erected on the site of Fort 
George, for the residence of the chief magistrate 
of the state, but had become useless in consequence 
of the removal of the seat of government. In 
the apartments thus granted, the casts and pictures 
were arranged and opened to the public ; and, al- 
though they excited but little notice at the time, 
their influence was felt in the formation of public 
taste, and gradually extended itself, until the City 
of New-York has assumed a high rank both for 
the patronage and the practice of the fine arts. 

Chnton was named a director of the Academy 
in the charter, and continued to hold that office 
by annual election until the death of Chancellor 
Livingston, who was the founder and the first 
president. He was then elected president of the 
Academy, which office he held for several years, 
but, with great judgment, permitted the active 
duties of that station to be performed chiefly by 
Colonel Trumbull, who was so well fitted, from 
his reputation as an artist, to hold the first rank in 

I 



98 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

such an institution. This institution, after fulfilhng 
its object, has given way to an association of ar- 
tists formed in its schools. 

The Fur-trade of the West had been monopoli- 
zed in a great degree by British subjects. These 
had spread their posts far to the south into the 
American territory, and could not be met on fair 
terms of competition for want of united action on the 
part of the American traders. Mr. Astor, so cel- 
ebrated for his extended and comprehensive views 
of commerce, was willing to apply his own capital 
and talents to the important object of recovering 
this valuable trade from a rival, and soon to be 
a hostile nation. From the general government, 
however, under a strict construction of the consti- 
tution, he could not obtain the necessary powers 
wherewith to found a company ; but as New-York 
w^ould be the place of shipment and the necessary 
centre of operations, a charter from this state was 
considered by him as adequate to the purpose. 
He therefore petitioned the Legislature for an act 
of incorporation. This was drawn by Clinton, 
and by his exertions it became a law. Since that 
time the American Fur Company has not only 
been a profitable concern to its stockholders, and 
thus added to the general wealth, but has been of 
great value to the country. It has excluded the 
foreign influence, which had extended itself over 
the savages within our own borders, and has done 



DEWITT CLINTON. 99 

more than arms to preserve the peace of an expo- 
sed frontier, and render the pioneers of civilization 
safe in their adventurous pursuits. 

During the Revolutionary war, the prisoners ta- 
ken by the British army, as well as many persons 
seized under a charge of treason, had been confi- 
ned in a hulk anchored in the Wallabout Bay. 
The miseries of these floating prisons have been a 
fruitful theme of complaint on the part of all na- 
tions who have been engaged in war with Great 
Britain. Security seems to have been the only ob- 
ject in view, unless the demoniac pleasure of 
lessening the number of enemies by a lingering 
death can be believed to have existed. The suf- 
ferings which have in all cases attended confine- 
ment in British prison-ships, were aggravated on 
this occasion by the riature of the contest, and 
the fact that the jailers were in most instances 
rather political opponents of the prisoners, who 
sought to compel them to abandon their principles, 
than public and honourable enemies. Whatever 
may have been the cause, the mortality in that 
vessel was unexampled, and the corses of the 
unfortunate sufferers were hardly treated with the 
ceremony of a handfiil of earth to protect their 
putrefying remains from the public gaze. For 
nearly a quarter of a century, the unburied bones 
of these martyrs to their principles remained the 
reproach of their tyrannical destroyers and the 



100 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

disgrace of their ungrateful countrymen. Clinton 
felt the latter in no small degree ; and, to remove 
the blot on the national fame, proposed a law for 
giving burial honours to the remains. This was 
passed, and was carried into effect. Unluckily, in 
its execution, an attempt was made to give it a 
party character, and to employ it in arousing or 
perpetuating a feeling of hostility to Great Britain. 
All those who doubted the policy of entering into 
a war with that country, were therefore debarred 
from uniting in the ceremony ; and, by a want of 
ordinary good taste in the committee of arrange^ 
ments, what was meant to honour the worthy 
dead overpassed the step which separates the sub- 
lime from the ridiculous. No error of manage- 
ment, however, can do away the merit of the suf- 
ferers, or detract from the feeling which influenced 
Chnton in proposing due honours to their unburied 
remains. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 101 



CHAPTER Vin. 

Important Laws drawn hy Clinton while Senator. 
— His Opinions as a Member of the Court of 
Errors. — He Receives a Challenge for words 
spoken in Debate. — His Manly and Dignified 
Conduct on that Occasion. — Attempt at Corrup- 
tion in obtaining the Charter of a Bank, 

Clinton continued to be a Senator of the State 
until 1811, when he was elected lieutenant-o-ov- 
ernor, and thus called to preside over the deliber- 
ations of the body of which he had so long been 
a member. We have already seen that he was 
the mover, and influential in procuring the pas- 
sage, of many important acts. Among others, 
which were also drawn by him, and which are of 
sufficient moment to be recorded, are : 

An Act to provide for a State Arsenal. 

An Act relative to the fortifications erecting by 
the state. 

An Act for laying out Canal-street in the city 
of New- York. 

An Act respecting a digest of the public laws 
of the state. 

An Act to enlarge the powers of the Orphan 
Asylum Society. 

12 



102 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

An Act to ame^d the insolvent laws. 

An Act to prevent the inhuman treatment of 
slaves. 

An Act to prevent the farther introduction of 
slaves. 

An Act for the support of the Quarantine estab- 
lishment. 

An Act to incorporate the New-York Mission- 
ary Society. 

An Act to revise and amend the militia laws. 

An Act to incorporate the society for the relief 
of poor widows with small children. 

An Act for promoting medical science. 

An Act respecting the Free-school Society. 

An Act for the partition of Haerlem Commons. 

An Act concerning the Onondago Salt-springs. 

An Act for the farther encouragement of free- 
schools. 

An Act for the better protection of sheep. 

An Act securing to mechanics and others pay- 
ment for their labour and materials in the city of 
New-York. 

An Act to establish a register's office in the 
city of New- York. 

An Act to set apart certain apartments in the 
Capitol for public purposes. 

An Act for the benefit of the Orphan Asylum 
(by which an annuity of $500 was granted out of 
the auction duties). 



DEWITT CLINTON. 103 

An Act to prevent abuses in actions de homine 
replegiando. 

An Act for abolishing the Court of Exchequer. 

An Act to prevent frauds at elections. 

An Act to incorporate the Humane Society. 

In introducing several of the bills which be- 
came the foregoing laws, Clinton presented able 
and luminous reports, or prefaced the propositions 
with powerful speeches. He also drew, on several 
occasions, the answer of the Senate to the speech- 
es of the governor. In one of these, presented in 
1810, is to be found one of the best arguments in 
favour of our republican institutions, with an eulo- 
gium on the excellence of that system of govern- 
ment "which recognises the people as the source, 
and their happiness as the object of all legitimate 
authority." 

On the retirement of Jefferson from the office 
of president, an address was voted to him by the 
Leo-islature of New- York, which measure was 
proposed, and the address drawn by Clinton. 

In addition to the acts which have been cited, 
he drew and procured the passage of others in 
encouragement of literary and scientific objects, as 
well as others in reference to internal improve- 
ments, on which subject he also wrote and pre- 
sented reports. We have omitted these for the 
present, as we shall have occasion hereafter to 
examine his agency in the cause of science, and 



104 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

his services in promoting our system of internal 
improvement more at length. 

The Senate, with the chancellor of the State 
and the judges of the Supreme Court, formed, and 
still form, a tribunal of ultimate resort, under the 
name of the Court of Errors. This tribunal is of 
great value among our institutions, as it not only 
furnishes the means of cool and deliberate adjudi- 
cation in points of law, but, from its mixed char- 
acter, affords a means of correcting so much of 
the common law as, by the progress of society, 
becomes unsuited to the existing state of things, 
and of substituting principles of broad and univer- 
sal application for the mere technicalities of legal 
forms. In the deliberations of this tribunal Clin- 
ton bore an important share. 

As early as 1802, when serving for his first term 
in the Senate of the state, he delivered an opinion 
on a most important question, and settled the law 
on that subject. The trade of the United States 
had become an object of pillage to both belliger- 
ants, and this pillage was legalized by the decis- 
ions of petty admiralty courts, which rarely failed 
to find pretences for condemnation. The mer- 
chants sought protection by insurances at exorbi- 
tant premiums, but were likely to derive no ad- 
vantage from this precaution. The English judges 
had decided that the decrees of admiralty courts 
were not open to revision ; and thus, when the as- 



DEWITT CLINTON. 105 

signed cause of condemnation was not among the 
risks expressed or implied in the pohcy, the suf- 
ferer would have had no redress had this princi- 
ple been adopted as a part of the common law 
of the State of New-York. The inferior tribunals, 
governed by the English decisions, refused to in- 
quire whether the assigned cause of condemnation 
were ti^ue or false; and, as such pretended cause 
was of course one which was inconsistent with an 
observance of neutrality, the policies could not 
have been recovered. 

When these questions came before the Court of 
Errors, it decided that the decisions of courts of 
admiralty were, like those of other tribunals, open 
to examination. The very act of pillage and op- 
pression, which had before been a bar to the re- 
covery of the loss, was thus made a risk which 
could be covered by insurance. The proceedings 
in the American courts under this decision could 
be made the grounds of a claim for indemnity to 
the underwriters from the foreign government ; and 
this opinion of Clinton's has, after the lapse of up- 
ward of thirty years, been the direct cause of a claim 
being successfully urged against the French gov- 
ernment for the spoliations committed by Napo- 
leon. Had the American courts of law admitted, 
even by implication, the justice of the decrees of 
the admiralty tribunals, it must have been a bar to 
any redress, except in the small list of cases in 



106 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

which even the mockery of legal process had 
been dispensed with. In the negotiations which 
continued for so long a time before redress was 
obtained, the French diplomatists drew, on this 
very ground, a broad distinction between the two 
sets of cases ; and, could they have supported their 
argument by the adjudication of American tribu- 
nals, it is not difficult to believe that all indemnity 
would have been refused. In this decision, there- 
fore, Clinton not only conferred an immediate 
benefit on the mercantile community, but paved 
the way for the indemnification of the underwri- 
ters. 

In 1807 another case of great importance to the 
merchant was decided in the Court of Errors. In 
this Clinton delivered the opinion concurred in by 
the majority of the court, in opposition to the 
views of the judges. At that time American citi- 
zens were permitted to own vessels, which, from 
being of foreign build, or having lost their nation- 
al character by capture and condemnation, were 
not entitled to be registered. To secure such 
property from capture, the executive of the Uni- 
ted States had directed the officers of the customs 
to furnish them with papers under the name of 
sea-letters. A law of Congress had subsequently 
enacted, that the evidence of ownership should 
be afforded by a paper called a passport. In the 
practice of the custom-house, the papers furnished 



DEWITT CLINTON. 107 

first under the executive instructions, and subse- 
quently under the laws, were made identical. 
Thus, while the mercantile community continued ' 
to call the document a sea-letter, the custom-house 
issued it under the law authorizing the granting of 
passports. In a case arising out of this confusion of 
terms, Clinton led the decision of the Court of Er- 
rors by an opinion in which the broad principles 
of justice triumphed over the narrow views of le- 
gal interpretation. 

During the same session, a case arose involving 
the nicest technicalities of special pleading ; and 
here Clinton exhibited as much knowledge of the 
logic of legal argument, as he had, in the former 
case, shown of the basis of natural right on which 
alone laws ought to be founded. 

An estate of great value in the neighbourhood 
of New-York, left by Nicholas Cruger to his heirs, 
had unluckily become the subject of litigation. 
The widow had married again, and his children by 
a former marriage naturally felt indignant at see- 
ing the property of their father likely to be thus 
diverted to strangers to his blood. The case was 
involved in great difficulty, in consequence of one 
of the largest pieces of the real estate having been 
leased for the term of two joint lives and that of 
the surviver. It became necessary, therefore, in 
the valuation for a division, to introduce the esti- 
mate of the probabilities of life. Clinton discuss- 



108 AMERICAN BIOGEAPHY. 

ed this complicated subject with his usual ability. 
It is unnecessary, however, for us to enter into the 
merits of this case, for means were found to con- 
tinue the litigation ; and the suit was not finally 
settled until the dropping of both the lives render- 
ed all that had been done useless. 

The law of libel in the United States has under- 
gone great alterations, in order to conform it to 
the spirit of our institutions, from the strict rule 
which the British common law has sanctioned, that 
" the greater the truth the greater the libel." In 
that country, to publish even the truth in respect to 
parties of distinguished rank becomes a crime of no 
little magnitude ; and even among equals the truth 
of the publication is no plea in mitigation of the 
punishment awarded to a libel as a crime, howev- 
er strongly it may influence a jury in the estimate 
of damages in a civil action. A suit commenced 
against the notorious Cheetham was carried up ta 
the Court of Errors in 1805, and afforded Clinton 
a farther opportunity of exhibiting his judicial ac- 
umen. 

His last decision was in the case of John Van 
Ness Yates. This person had been committed by 
Chancellor Lansing for an alleged contempt of 
court, and had been released under a writ of ha- 
beas corpus by a process at common law. No 
sooner was he freed from imprisonment than he 
was forthwith recommitted by the chancellor. He, 



. DEWITT CLINTON. 109 

in consequence, brought an action against that high 
judicial officer for damages, and was defeated on 
a point of law in the Supreme Court. In attempt- 
ing to remove the cause by a writ of error from 
the Court of Errors, he was met by an order of 
supersedeas from the chancellor, and his proceed- 
ings were stopped. The question was, however, 
brought in the form of a suit between Yates and 
the State before the Court of Errors, which deci- 
ded, in conformity with an opinion delivered by 
Clinton, that the writ of error issued of right, and 
could neither be withheld at the pleasure of a 
judge, nor stopped by any process issuing from the 
Court of Chancery. The importance of this de- 
cision is manifest, and the opinion of Clinton is 
marked by a profound knowledge of the history 
of the common law, and an acute perception of the 
variations which the peculiar nature of republican 
institutions must necessarily introduce into it. 

In the words of that distinguished jurist Chan- 
cellor Kent, " some of these opinions are models 
of judicial and parliamentary eloquence, and they 
all relate to important questions affecting constitu- 
tional rights and civil liberty." 

While a member of the Senate, Clinton had an 
opportunity of vindicating the freedom of debate, 
and maintaining the immunity of members of a 
legislative body from personal responsibility for 
words spoken in its deliberative proceedings. On 

K 



110 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

the discussion of a law for granting the right of 
holding real estate to certain aliens, Clinton felt it 
his duty to comment on the conduct of one of 
them to his tenants. It is to be remarked, that the 
grant of such privilege is contrary to the policy of 
most other countries, and that Great Britain in 
particular, to whose subjects such grants have most 
frequently been made by the State of New- York, 
has been the most illiberal in its escheats of the 
inheritances which, in natural course, would have 
passed to foreigners. The person whose conduct 
was commented upon sought what is styled sat- 
isfaction for the attack by sending a challenge. 
Such is the code of modern honour, that he seems 
to have calculated almost with certainty that Clin- 
ton, who had not yet abjured its bloody rule, 
would not have hesitated to give him a meeting. 
It had indeed been the practice, in too many in- 
stances, to submit disputes to a decision by arms; 
and the immunity of legislators for words spoken 
in debate was not regarded in the courts of honour. 
There are, no doubt, instances where attacks 
on character become cowardly when shielded by 
parliamentary privilege; but this was not one. 
The facts stated w^ere no more than the simple 
truth, and the case called for their disclosure. 
Men of less moral courage than Clinton might, 
however, have hesitated, and feared a loss of rep- 
utation from refusing a challenge ; and it has "been 



DEWITT CLINTON. Ill 

often remarked, that a greater degree of coward- 
ice has been shown in the acceptance than would 
have been exhibited in dechning to fight a duel. 
The fear of " the world's dread laugh" is often 
greater than that of loss of life, and has in many 
instances prevailed over the obligations of moral- 
ity and religion. It was, in fact, necessary that 
some person of standing and reputation, equal to 
that of Clinton, should interpose the authority of 
his example to correct the mistaken notions of 
honour which prevailed. 

It was, fortunately, unnecessary for him to ex- 
hibit proofs of personal courage. He had, on 
another occasion, done all that the nicest casuist 
in points of honour could have demanded; and 
although his lending his countenance to the prac- 
tice of duelling is, if capable of any excuse, not to 
be vindicated in the eye of religious feeling, he 
had established a character for undaunted bravery. 

Clinton, on a full view of the subject, saw that 
he w^as precluded from giving his challenger a 
meeting by considerations other than those of bare 
privilege. He therefore laid the whole matter, 
without delay, before the Senate. The parties 
concerned in the challenge were forthwith com- 
mitted to the custody of the officers of the house, 
whence they were not discharged until they had 
made an humble apology for the breach of privi- 
lege. 



112 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

So high did parties run, and so completely did 
they blind one portion of the community to a true 
perception of the matter, that much blame was at 
the moment poured upon Clinton for a course, a 
deviation from which must have loaded him with 
severe censure, and left an indelible spot on his 
fame. The acceptance of the challenge would 
have placed his adversary on the vantage ground, 
and, whatever had been the result, Clinton would 
have fallen in the estimation of the thinking part 
of the community. 

At the present day, no difference of opinion on 
this point exists. It is admitted on all hands, that 
Clinton on this occasion not only maintained with 
intelligent firmness the freedom of debate and the 
privileges of the deliberative body of which he 
was a member, but pursued the course most con- 
sistent with his own reputation and the dignity of 
his character. 

On another occasion, he vindicated with signal 
determination the dignity of the body of which 
he was a member. The privilege of banking, un- 
der an act of incorporation, had hitherto been 
granted by the Legislature with great parsimony. 
In the city of New- York, no more than one bank 
had received the direct sanction of that body, and 
another had exercised the powers by a free con- 
f struction of privileges granted avowedly for a 
very different purpose. It is foreign to our pur- 



DEWITT CLINTON. 113 

pose to compare this rigid course with the open and 
liberal plan which has recently been introduced ; 
it is sufficient to say that a charter was of great 
value on account of the difficulty of procuring it. 
In the attempt to obtain an act of incorporation 
for a new bank, money, promises, and other means 
of corruption w^ere not spared. Among other 
agents, a member of the Senate itself was not 
free from the suspicion of acting from corrupt mo- 
tives, and was notoriously the channel by which 
others were tempted. As soon as CHnton became 
aware of the circumstances, he moved an inquiry 
into the conduct of his colleague, and, after some 
proceedings in prosecution of this inquiry, the 
senator found it expedient to resign his seat rath- 
er than incur the consequences of an examination. 
Clinton thus boldly attempted to stem at its 
source that current of corruption which afterward 
degraded the state, and gave birth to that third 
estate, "the lobby," which, although unknown to 
the constitution and laws, has at times controlled 
the actions of the constituted chambers. 

K2 



114 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Literary and Scientific Pursuits of Clinton. — His- 
torical Society ; his efforts in its behalf, and 
his Address on the History of the Five Motions. 
— Literary and Philosophical Society formed, 
and Clinton chosen President. — His Inaugural 
Discourse. — His Discovery of a JYative Variety 
of Wheat, and other Contributions to JYatural 
Science. 

We have had occasion to mention the bias 
which CUnton exhibited in the early part of his 
career to scientific pursuits. Of these and of 
literature, he became, as his influence was extend- 
ed, the active patron, while he did not cease to 
devote his brief intervals of leisure to their cultiva- 
tion by his own labours. The Historical Society 
was estabhshed in the City of New-York in 1804 
by a voluntary association. The venerable Egbert 
Benson was its first president, and had attempted 
to direct its action to the traditional lore of which 
he himself possessed so ample a fund. It was not 
found practicable, however, by means of the hmited 
contributions of individuals, to accumulate sufficient 
funds for th« furtherance of its objects, nor would 
the friends of the distinguished dead intrust their 



DEWITT CLINTON. 115 

memorials to an ephemeral association. In order 
to enable this society to accomplish its avowed 
and praiseworthy objects, Clinton, to whom a pe- 
tition for that purpose was referred in 1809, drew 
an act of incorporation, which he presented, along 
wdth a strong and able report in its favour. This 
report was adopted and the charter granted. Not 
content with this, he in 1814 framed a memorial 
to the Legislature on behalf of the Historical So- 
ciety. In this, after dividing the civil history of 
the State of New- York into four epochs, he shows 
in what a scattered state even the records were, 
whence alone an authentic history of these several 
periods could be derived. The Indian tribes were 
fast disappearing before the moral force of civiliza- 
tion; the mounds, ramparts, and tumuli of a yet 
earlier race were yielding to the plough and har- 
row ; while the records of the official treaties be- 
tween the Five Nations and the colonial authorities 
were in the hands of an expatriated family. 

The history of the emigrants from Holland and 
of the Protestant families of Belgium, who had 
preferred to encounter the dangers of the seas and 
the terrors of the wilderness to submission to the 
bloody rule of Alba, were in the archives of the 
Dutch West India Company. Much of the man- 
uscript history of the British colonial period was 
in the public offices of London, or transferred to 
the library of the British Museum. "While, even 



116 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

for the period which had elapsed since the revo- 
lution, no provision had been made for the preser- 
vation of the pamphlets, the periodicals, and the 
daily publications, which, however they may be 
despised after their first ephemeral interest has 
subsided, become, after the lapse of years, the viv- 
id expression of the feelings, the manners, and the 
principles of the era which gave them birth. 

This memorial was favourably received by the 
Legislature, and led to a grant of twelve thousand 
dollars in aid of the funds of the society. 

The grant was to be received from the avails 
of a lottery, and the society unluckily engaged its 
credit in the purchase of books and of manuscripts 
ere it was known how distant and precarious were 
the proceeds of this mode of raising money. It 
thus became involved in a debt which was not 
extinguished without many and severe sacrifices. 
It had, however, before its usefulness was impeded 
by the pressure of this debt, published several vol- 
umes of transactions, which are of much value. 
Its library still remains an evidence of the liberal- 
ity of the state, and a monument of the earnestness 
with which Clinton furthered such institutions as 
were intended to add to the permanent reputation 
of the country. 

We have stated that Egbert Benson was the 
first president of the Historical Society. He was 
succeeded, in 1816, by Gouverneur Morris, on 



DEWITT CLINTON. 117 

whose death Chnton was elected to the vacant 
chair. On taking his seat, he dehvered an inau- 
gin^al discourse on the history of the Indians of the 
State of New-York, which is the most valuable 
paper contained in the transactions of this society. 
In the year 1814, a number of gentlemen of 
scientific taste undertook the formation of a socie- 
ty for the cultivation of literature and the encour- 
agement of science. The projector of this associa- 
tion appears to have been Dr. Hugh Williamson, 
who had in early life filled a prominent place fn 
the American Philosophical Society, where he had 
been associated with Rittenhouse in the celebrated 
observations of the transit of Venus. 

In the opinion of Williamson, the increase of 
population and the central position of New-York 
rendered it advisable to form an institution having 
the same objects in view as the society in Philadel- 
phia. He found a ready and efficient coadjutor in 
Clinton, who conceived it due to the reputation of 
his native state, and of the city over which he 
presided, that they should take a rank in scientific 
pursuits consistent with their wealth and popula- 
tion. In the formation of tliis society, Drs. MitchiJl 
and Hosack, Fulton, and several other distinguish- 
ed persons, joined with zeal, together with a num- 
ber of younger men, several of whom have since 
become celebrated. 
'Clinton w^as anxious that Williamson should be 



118 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

placed at the head of the new society ; but all the 
other associates concurred in opinion that he him- 
self was best fitted to fill that station, and he was 
accordingly elected its first president. By his ex- 
ertions and influence in the Legislature a charter 
was obtained, and the New- York Literary and 
Philosophical Society went into operation, appa- 
rently under the most happy auspices. Its public 
proceedings were opened by an address from Clin^ 
ton, which has been much admired, and which 
exhibits evidence of the extent of his reading, and 
manifests the variety of his studies. 

Clinton continued at the head of the Literary 
and Philosophical Society until his death ; but the 
brilliant beginnings of that association were not 
followed by continued success. The expenses at^- 
tendant upon its publications were considered a 
heavy burden by many of the members, who with- 
drew ; even among those who were wilhng to con- 
tinue their subscriptions, the political disputes of 
the day, in which Clinton's name became the watch- 
word of adverse factions, produced an injurious ef- 
fect ; while, in fine, personal jealousies, and the un- 
popularity of one of the other officers with many 
members of his own profession, created an opposi- 
tion to its proceedings which could not be overcome. 
A society, which took its rise in the bosom of the 
Literary and Philosophical, and which was intend- 



DEWITT CLINTON. 119 

ed as an aid and not as a rival, engrossed all the 
communications of those who were most active in 
science; and, after the publication of one quarto 
volume and a part of another, its proceedings 
ceased. It may be fairly believed, that, had Clin- 
ton continued to reside in the City of New-York, 
and had given to the Literary and Philosophical 
Society the advantage of his presence as presidino- 
officer, the decay into which it has fallen might 
have been avoided or delayed ; but other more im- 
portant pursuits withdrew him from its meetings, 
and, with his personal attention, the prosperity of 
the society seems to have departed. 

It may be questioned at the present day how 
far the success of such an institution is compatible 
with the habits and manners of the age. The 
French Institute no doubt flourishes, but it is sup- 
ported by the direct aid of the government, and 
its scientific and literary classes receive annual sal- 
aries. The Royal Society of Great Britain, if it 
receive little direct patronage from the govern- 
ment, is able, by the value ascribed by fashion to 
the letters F.R.S., to call to the aid of its funds 
any number it may choose to elect of the rich or 
powerful, from princes of the blood to w^ealthy 
merchants. 

In spite of these advantages, these institutions 
have ceased to exert the influence they once pos- 
sessed. The daily papers, and the monthly and 



120 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

quarterly miscellanies, make novelties in science as 
much objects of their pursuit as the political news 
of the day, and thus frequently forestal the trans- 
actions of the learned associations, or give in an 
abridged form, and at a much lower price, conden- 
sed accounts of recent discoveries. Popular and 
cheap publications, therefore, interfere with the 
sale of the more costly volumes in which the so- 
cieties give their transactions to the world. 

In the establishment of the Historical and the Lit- 
erary and Philosophical Societies, particularly in the 
munificent grant he obtained for the former, Clin- 
ton exhibited a character very different from al- 
most any other American statesman. He is among 
the few who seem to have seen that the money ex- 
pended in the support of such institutions is not 
lost, but will shortly be repaid with interest. In 
conformity with this enlightened and liberal view, 
he gave to these societies the benefit of his pen in 
drawing their charters ; his aid as a member of the 
Legislature in procuring the passage of their acts 
of incorporation ; and devoted to their prosperity 
no inconsiderable share of his time and talent. In 
these associations, the advantage to be derived 
from his high political standing, and lofty reputa- 
tion as a statesman and magistrate, were fully ap- 
preciated, in securing unity of action and harmony 
among persons necessarily rivals. There were 
those, however, who could not brook the control 



DEWITT CLINTON. 121 

of one whom they styled a lay7nan, and united with 
his poUtical opponents in an attempt to ridicule the 
holder of such apparently incongruous offices. He 
was, at the same time, president of the Academy 
of Fine Arts, of the Historical, and of the Lite- 
rary and Philosophical Society ; but as he had only 
accepted these stations with a view to the public 
benefit, he yielded to the first appearance of dis- 
content. In the Academy he gave way to Colo- 
nel Trumbull, and in the Historical Society to Dr. 
Hosack. The result c>^ his resignation was disas- 
trous to the interests of both institutions. The dis- 
tinguished men w^e have named did not possess, in 
the eye of the public, the decided superiority over 
their associates which Clinton was always able to 
maintain, and both institutions decayed from the 
moment he ceased to preside over their delibera- 
tions. 

If Clinton applied his hands to the practice of 
none of the fine arts, he was, notwithstanding, 
their liberal patron, and a connoisseur of no little 
taste ; his contributions to the history of the ab- 
origines of our state may well place him on a 
level with any writer of that class which America 
has produced ; and his hundred speeches, address- 
es, and reports, sufficiently exhibit his literary 
abilities. As a cultivator of philosophy, in the 
sense in which it is familiarly received, he ranks 
still higher, and was, as we have already stated, 

L 



122 AMEKICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

not only a diligent student in natural history in its 
several branches, but made several interesting dis- 
coveries. 

In the first volume of the Transactions of the 
Literary and Philosophical Society, he published 
some remarks on the fishes of the western waters 
of the State of New-York, in a letter to his friend 
Dr. Mitchill. In this he illustrates the fact, now so 
well known, that, in variety, in abundance, and in 
delicacy, they are not surpassed by any in the 
world. 

In the first part of the second volume of the 
same Transactions, an article by Clinton is insert- 
ed on certain phenomena of the great lakes of 
America. These he is inclined to attribute to vol- 
canic action. In the same volume we have a me- 
moir by him on the antiquities discovered in the 
western part of the State of New-York. 

To the New-York Medical and Physical Jour- 
nal he communicated some remarks on the Colum- 
ba Migratoria, the passenger or common wild 
pigeon ; a bird which he deems peculiar to North 
America, and whose habits and history are very 
interesting. In the same work may be found an 
account of the Salmo Otsego, or Otsego bass, a 
fish of peculiar excellence, which is found in great 
abundance in the lake of that name, where the 
eastern branch of the Susquehanna has its princi- 
pal source. This fish, strange as it may seem, had 



DEWITT CLINTON. 123 

not been described, and, as its name imports, had 
been confounded by the uninformed with the genus 
perca, of which bass is the famihar name among 
the settlers of Dutch extraction. 

To the Annals of the Lyceum of Natural Histo- 
ry he communicated a description of a new spe- 
cies of fish in the Hudson River, and a paper of 
some length on the hirundo fulva. The first of 
these, although familiar to all who have seen nets 
drawn in the bay of New-York, had not been re- 
marked by Mitchill, whose researches had been re- 
stricted to the specimens furnished by those who 
supply the markets ; and, from its small size, it 
had by many been considered as the fry of a lar- 
ger fish. In the second paper he gives several in- 
teresting remarks on birds of the swallow kind. 
The migratory habits of the bird in question, and 
its other peculiarities, are set forth by him in an at- 
tractive manner, and illustrated by many facts, the 
result of close personal observation. His common- 
place books abound with extracts from authors 
who have written on the habits of the swallow, 
and with memoranda of his own inquiries. 

In the discourse delivered before the New- York 
Historical Society, he evinces with what interest 
he had studied the aborigines of our country. 
These "Romans," as he styled them, "of the 
Western World" found in him an able historian, 
and a strenuous asserter of their prowess and tal- 



124 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

ent. He, besides, investigated, with something of 
the closeness of medical inquiry, the peculiarities 
of the physical constitution of the Indian; and 
among his letters and memoranda are to be found 
many well-grounded conjectures on the laws of 
life, as modified in both sexes by the habits of 
a savage life. 

From the freedom from all bias to preconceived 
opinions with which Clinton prosecuted his studies 
in natural history, and from the love he manifested 
to that science, there can be no question that pub- 
lic cares alone prevented him from attaining a tri- 
imiphant eminence in investigations of this char- 
acter. In the words of one who well knew him, 
and was the confidant of his philosophical pursuits, 
" He loved to dwell upon every incident associa- 
ted w^ith the labours and services of naturalists j 
from Hennepin to Kalm, everything was familiar 
to him; the great Swede was ever a topic of de- 
light, and the heroic achievements of Cuvier the 
theme of his admiration. So much did he, at a 
later period, become enamoured of the genius 
and skill of the modern French school of natural- 
ists that there is reason to conclude, that he would 
finally have adopted the natural system of Jussieu 
in preference to the artificial method of Linnaeus, 
and would have chosen the improved nomencla- 
ture of the Parisian savans rather than that of the 
English writers, whose works he had studied with 



DEWITT CLINTON. 125 

deference, and to whose authority he had original- 
ly bowed w^ith submission." 

In addition to his communications to American 
societies and scientific periodicals, he maintained a 
correspondence with several of the most eminent 
naturalists in Europe, and, among others, with the 
late distinguished president of the Linnsean Society 
of London, Sir James Edward Smith. Of that 
institution Clinton was elected an associate, as a 
just tribute to his zeal in behalf of Natural Sci- 
ence. Several of these letters have been publish- 
ed, and exhibit close and accurate observation, 
followed up by sound induction. 

His pursuits as a naturalist were not limited to 
the narrow object of acquiring individual reputa- 
tion as a cultivator of the science, but were pur- 
sued chiefly in reference to their bearings upon the 
wealth and prosperity of the state. He saw, by 
improvident legislation, and the improvement, as it 
was styled, of sites for water-power, the vast native 
wealth which existed in the fisheries rapidly de- 
caying ; and, in the knowledge of the history of 
the finned race, he sought the means of prevent- 
ing their diminution, and, in some cases, their total 
extinction. He inquired deeply and laboriously 
into the modes of stocking ponds and lakes with 
fish, and sought the species best adapted to the 
purpose. On this subject he corresponded with 

L2 



126 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

the chief magistrate of the neighbouring State of 
New-Jersey, who had views of the same kind. 

The circumstances of CHnton's laborious pubUc 
career left him no opportunity for applying tJie re- 
sult of his researches to practical purposes ; but 
Governor Mahlon Dickerson, in his philosophic re- 
treat at Succasunney, has shown the practicability 
of the schemes in which they took so strong a mu- 
tual interest. 

Impelled by the same patriotic views, he prose- 
cuted an inquiry into the habits and characters of 
the zizania aquatica, or wild rice. This plant, a 
native of the lakes of America, was, in his opin- 
ion, calculated to support an extended population, 
and worthy of the title of the " bread-corn of the 
North." 

In his tours as canal commissioner he found 
growing near Utica a species of wheat, which he 
collected, examined, and described. It is well 
known that the origin of the cereal gramina, and 
particularly of wheat, the most important of them 
all to civilized nations, is involved in obscurity. 
From the very earliest date of historical records 
they have been the objects of cultivation, and none 
of them had been traced with certainty to any na- 
tive locality. Upon the belief that wheat is found 
growing wild near the eastern shore of the Cas- 
pian, has been founded an argument that central 
Asia is the cradle of the human race; and this 



DEWITT CLINTON. 127 

circumstance was supposed to throw light upon the 
early history of mankind. Here was an adverse 
fact, by which the whole argument was over- 
thrown, or rendered capable of leading to the in- 
credible inference that the State of New-York had 
been the earliest seat of the progenitors of the na- 
tions of Europe and Asia. This discovery of Clin- 
ton, therefore, although hardly noticed by his coun- 
trymen, procured him much reputation among the 
learned in Europe ; and the diplomas of many so- 
cieties founded for the cultivation of natural history 
were showered upon him. 

In this instance, his intimate friend and associate, 
Dr. Mitchill, was heard to complain, not with feel- 
ings of envy, but of admiration, that Clinton had 
the happiness, by seizing upon a happy accident 
and making a skilful use of it, to achieve honours 
and estimation beyond those granted to almost any 
American. Other observers might have passed 
this plant as the accidental offspring of the cultiva- 
ted wheat, while Clinton had the knowledge and 
the tact of observation by which it was shown to 
differ sufficiently to disprove such an origin, and 
yet to fall with certainty into the same species. 

In the words of the same scientific friend who 
has already been quoted,* " Six, I beheve, was the 

* J. W, Francis, M.D., in his " Discourse before the Ly- 
cevim of Natural History." 



128 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

number of species of triticum (wheat) stated by 
Linnaeus. Botanists have now increased the num- 
ber to 22. If the wild wheat discovered in Oneida 
county shall be found to be an indigenous and 
not an imported grain, and of spontaneous growth, 
we may justly boast of the Triticum Araericanum. 
Clinton says that it delights in a wet soil, which is 
not congenial to the wheat of the Old Continent : 
it presents not only a different aspect, but ap- 
pears to have peculiar and characteristic qualities. 
Should these conjectures be realized, our state may 
claim the birthplace of Ceres as well as Sicily, 
where mythology has yielded to her the title of 
queen ; and the goddess enjoy two special abodes, 
our fertile West as well as her favourite Enna. 
A harvest, in more respects than one, awaits the 
discussion of the question by the American nat- 
uralist." 



DEWITT CLINTON. 129 



CHAPTER X. 

Description of the Water Communications of the 
State of Mew-York. — Use made of them by the 
Indians. — Expedition of General Clinton on the 
Susquehanna. — Views of Lieutenant-Governor 
C olden. — Tour of Washington to Wood Creek. 
— His Predilections for the Route to the Chesa- 
peake.— Clinton'' s liberal Policy in relation to 
this Question. 

The Atlantic coast of the United States is sep- 
arated from the Valley of the Mississippi and the 
basins of the great lakes by a system of mountain 
chains. No less than five distinct ranges can be 
traced, and, in many places, a greater number of 
ridges are met with in passing from tide-water to 
the streams of the interior. This system of mount- 
ains extends from the frontiers of Canada to the 
State of Georgia. Its outer chain is made up of 
a number of short and separate ridges, extending 
north and south, and is therefore divided by valleys 
oblique to its general direction, which is northeast 
and southwest. Through these valleys a number 
of streams, of greater or less magnitude, make 
their way ; but of these, the Hudson alone is nav- 
igable through the ridge for vessels of any mag- 
nitude. This river bursts through this rocky bar- 



130 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

rier m a channel nowhere less than 1000 yards 
in width, and deep enough for vessels of the lar- 
gest size ; but it does not cut any of the other 
ridges. The Susquehanna, on the other hand, 
rising in the State of New-York, and whose west- 
ern branch has its head at no great distance from 
Lake Erie and from that of a principal branch 
of the Ohio, cuts through all the ridges of which 
we have spoken. No other river makes its w^ay 
through the whole system ; and thus the Valley of 
the Susquehanna might appear to be pointed out by 
nature as the proper channel for a navigable com- 
munication between the lakes and the Atlantic. 
This river . is, however, so rapid in the lower part 
of its course, and its upper valley is separated by 
barriers of such height from the basin of Lake On- 
tario, that it could neither be navigated by an as- 
cending trade, nor reached by the settlers of the 
more fertile parts of the State of New-York. On 
the other hand, the Mohawk, the most important 
branch of the Hudson, has its course in a valley 
that opens towards the west, and merges in the 
basin of Lake Ontario. Its greatest fall is immedi- 
ately at its junction with the Hudson ; and thence, 
with the exception of an insuperable rapid at the 
Little Falls, it was accessible to a navigation in 
small vessels, both in the ascending and descend- 
ing direction, as far as the ancient Fort Stanwix, 
the site of the modern village of Rome. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 131 

In this vicinity is a swamp, whence, in times of 
flood, the waters run in opposite directions towards 
the Hudson and Lake Ontario. A short portage 
at this place led to Wood Creek, a deep and slug- 
gish stream which falls into the Oneida Lake. 
The outlet of the Oneida Lake, after receiving the 
Onondago, unites with the Seneca outlet to form 
the Oswego River, and through the latter the 
navigation was practicable as far as Lake Onta- 
rio. 

This navigation from Schenectady to Oswego 
was practised by European traders at a very early 
date. It is even probable that the Dutch, who at 
first limited their views to traffic, had. reached 
Lake Ontario before the agricultural settlements 
of the Colony of New Netherlands were com- 
menced. At any rate, the route was well known 
and practised by Dutch traders before the con- 
quest by the British; and in 1810, the commis- 
sioners appointed to explore the country in refer- 
ence to a canal navigation, found at the outlet of 
the river obvious traces of the Dutch trading- 
houses, separate and clearly distinct from the 
ruins of the fortifications with which the French 
and English had, in succession, occupied that im- 
portant position. It appears, however, that in the 
disturbances which attended and followed the ces- 
sion to England, the traders, deprived of support, 
yielded to the growing influence of the French. 



132 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

The Seneca outlet, which, as we have seen, 
joins the Onondago at Three River Point, was 
practicable for boats into the lake whence it pro- 
ceeds, and through the Cayuga outlet the lake of 
the same name could be reached. At the head of 
the Seneca and of Lake Cayuga were the most 
remote points of the inland communication. 

Lake Ontario, whose southern shore affords nu- 
merous good harbours, was not unsafe for boats 
which coasted along it to the Niagara River, where 
they were carried over the portage to Schlosser, 
and thence passed into Lake Erie. 

A more southern hne of communication was 
also practicable. Leaving the Mohawk at Fort 
Plain, boats were carried over a long portage to 
the Otsego Lake, whence they could descend the 
main branch of the Susquehanna to Chemung 
Point. Llere, entering into the Tioga branch, they 
might ascend the sluggish stream of that river al- 
most to its source, and to points at no great dis- 
tance from navigable waters of the Alleghany, an 
important branch of the Ohio. 

The last-mentioned navigation was applied to 
great advantage during the Revolutionary war. 
The right wing of the army intended to act 
against the Indians was assembled on the Mo- 
hawk, whence it threatened the confederated na- 
tions on the front; but this was a mere feint; for, 
crossing to the Otsego Lake, it was embai'ked on 



BEWITT CLINTON. 133 

the Susquehanna, and borne upon its current to 
a junction \vith the main body of the army at 
Chemung Point. Thence the united force moved 
upon the rear and flank of the strategic position 
occupied by the Tories and their savage alhes. 
The important result^ of this brilHant miUtary op- 
eration are too well known to be repeated here. 

The communications of which we have spoken 
were used with great skill by the five confederated 
nations of Iroquois, in their wars with hostile 
tribes. By the Hudson their canoes descended, 
bearing forces which reduced to subjection the 
Lenni Lenape or Algonquin races, to the extreme 
end of Long Island. By Lake Ontario and the 
Saint Lawrence their war parties penetrated un- 
til they met the first French expedition on the 
Island of Montreal. On Lake Erie they defeated 
in a naval action, and almost exterminated, a cog- 
nate nation. The Susquehanna afforded them the 
means of replenishing the ranks of the expedi- 
tions they sent into Virginia, and which penetrated 
into North Carolina, where an invading body of 
Mingoes founded the powerful Tuscarora nation. 
On the west the Alleghany was the channel by 
which a perpetual war was waged with the In- 
dians of the Ohio. 

In these expeditions a peculiar description of 
vessel was employed, the bark canoe. This was 
so light, that, although capable of carrying ten or 

M 



134 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

twelve men, with their arms and provisions, it 
could be readily transported over the portages on 
the shoulders of two of them. The traders of Eu- 
ropean origin borrowed the mode of constructing 
these vessels from the Indians, but the Canadian 
French made a much more extensive and success- 
ful use of them than the British colonists. They 
were also employed in the military expeditions of 
the French; and, having obtained the command of 
Lake Ontario, on which they built armed vessels, 
they formed communications both for commercial 
and warlike purposes wdth the Ohio and the more 
western branches of the Mississippi. In this man- 
ner the British colonies were gradually surround- 
ed by a chain of French posts, extending from 
Lake Champlain to the mouth of the Mississippi. 
In the mean time, the merchants of Albany con- 
tented themselves with trading with such Indians 
as actually visited that place, or with selling to 
the French traders such goods of British manufac- 
ture as were absolutely necessary for the Indian 
market. The idea of a communication for the 
purposes of settlement, and of the commerce 
which would thus be created in the productions 
of agriculture, seems never to have occurred to 
any one ; and no clear estimate of the advantages 
of a direct trade w4th the Indians of the State of 
New-York, by means of parties sent out for the 
purpose, was formed by mercantile men. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 135 

Lieutenant-Governor Golden seems to have 
been the first to perceive the danger to which 
the Province of New- York, and others even more 
remote from Ganada, were exposed, in conse- 
quence of the influence which French traders and 
missionaries were acquiring over the Five Nations, 
hitherto the firm friends, first of the Dutch, and 
subsequently of the English. He, in consequence, 
made diligent inquiries into the communications 
by water which existed in the western part of the 
present State of New-York, and, having obtained 
all the information then accessible, made a com- 
munication to Governor Burnet, in which he sets 
forth the dangers of the colonies, and proposes, as 
a mode of removing them, a direct trade from Al- 
bany with the Indians. In this memoir he points 
out the route from the Hudson by the portage to 
Schenectady, the Mohawk, Wood Greek, Oneida 
Lake, the Onondago and Oswego rivers, to Lake 
Ontario. He then states that a river coming from 
the country of the Senecas joins the Oswego, and 
extends to so great a distance as probably to ap- 
proach Lake Erie. If in this opinion he was in- 
correct, it still shows his views of the true policy, 
which was to avoid the waters controlled by, or 
accessible to, a rival nation, and to seek for com- 
munications wholly within the jurisdiction of the 
colony. 

This memoir of Golden was productive of im- 



136 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

portant consequences. Under the influence of 
Burnet, the trade with the French was interdicted, 
and a chain of posts was estabhshed along the 
line of • the Mohawk, the Oneida outlets, and 
Onondago River. Finally a fort was erected at 
Oswego itself, and occupied by a permanent gar- 
rison of troops, raised and supported by the colo- 
ny. The benefits of the Indian trade were thus 
secured for the moment to the merchants of Alba- 
ny, and the fortress of Oswego became an object 
of jealousy to the French. 

At this time the articles of traffic were the sup- 
plies for a scanty population, deriving its subsist- 
ence from the chase on the one hand, and the 
valuable article of furs on the other. These arti- 
cles were of little bulk compared with the value 
set upon them in their respective markets ; and the 
small canoes of bark, passing through shallow and 
rapid streams, and transported on the shoulders of 
men over rough portages, would not have been 
insufficient for the purpose. Golden seems there- 
fore to have limited his views to this mode of 
communication, and could not have anticipated 
the time when the homes of the mighty tribes 
who had reduced to their sway so much of the 
present United States, and had alone been capa- 
ble of resisting the science of European warfare, 
should be possessed by an agricultural population, 
become the seat of commerce in the luxmies of 



DEW ITT CLINTON. 137 

the most distant climes, and aspire to the triumphs 
of manufacturing industry. For the wants of a 
people exercising these three great branches of in- 
dustry, the light and frail barks of the Indian tra- 
der are entirely inadequate ; and, while we find 
in his memoir the first good account of the water 
communications of our state, we see in it no hint 
of the importance of improving them by artificial 
means, and of rendering them subservient to the 
wants of civilized life. 

Sir Henry Moore seems to have been the first 
who extended his views beyond the trade with the 
Indians. In one of his speeches to the Legislature, 
he points out the practicability of improving the 
navigation of the rivers of the state by means of 
sluices (locks), as in the canal of Languedoc. It 
is to be remarked, that this communication was 
made at a time when the parent country was 
without canals, and that he was, in consequence, 
compelled to have recourse to the experience of 
France ; and this is, perhaps, the first of the numer- 
ous instances in which Anglo-America has, in the 
project, if not in the completed invention, taken 
the lead of Britain. This project was, how- 
ever, in advance both of the spirit of the age and 
of the wants of the population. The settlers of 
the Mohawk and Schoharie valleys were too few 
in numbers to support such an enterprise by their 
trade, and the Little Falls of the former river were 

M2 



/ 



138 AMERICAN BIOGRAPH'Y. 

the farthest limit of agricultural industry. The 
prolific race of New-England had not yet crossed 
the Hudson in its search of land; and that the 
wilds occupied by the Five Nations should be- 
come the seat of a rich and industrious policy, 
was beyond the limit of reasonable anticipation. 

Imperfect as were these navigations of which 
we have spoken,' they were, notwithstanding, em- 
ployed with fatal effect against us in the early 
part of the Revolutionary war. All the confeder- 
ated nations except the Oneidas ranged them- 
selves under the British banner, and from their 
central position alternately invaded the settle- 
ments on the Mohawk and on the Susquehanna. 
Their supplies of arms and clothing were derived 
from Canada by the way of Oswego, and by this 
channel the corps of St. Leger advanced, for the 
purpose of forcing his way through the Valley of 
the Mohawk to a junction with the army of Bur- 
goyne. 

That communications so dangerous in war might 
be applied to advantageous purposes in peace, was 
obvious ; and Washington, who had watched with 
anxiety the operations of the British forces, no 
sooner found a respite from his military toils, than 
he proceeded along the Mohawk, and examined 
in person the practicability of forming a union be- 
tween it and Wood Creek. He also viewed the 
portage between the Mohawk and the head of the 



DEWITT CLINTON. 139 

Susquehanna ; and it is clear that his survey was 
made in conformity with his favourite view of 
making the Chesapeake the great centre of the 
trade of the United States. That it was pointed 
out for this purpose by nature he firmly believed, 
and thus his broad views of the general benefit 
concurred with his local attachments to the region 
of his nativity. Should we look to natural cir- 
cumstances alone, we should be inclined to think 
that he was right. The broad sestuary of the 
Chesapeake, with its innumerable bays, presents 
an extent of navigable communication far greater 
than all the streams of which New-York is the ap- 
propriate port. Its shores were then far more fer- 
tile than any settled part of the northern or eastern 
states, and supported a greater population ; and, 
in addition to the waters already navigable, the 
Valley of the Susquehanna presented the shortest 
practicable line of communication by artificial 
means between tide-water and streams whose 
sources interlocked with the tributaries of the St. 
Lawrence, while, through those of James River 
and the Kanhaway, the Ohio is approachable in 
the most direct line. It is probably fortunate for 
the City of New- York that the state of the times 
w^as not suited to enterprises of internal improve- 
ment while Washington retained his paranoount in- 
fluence both in the councils of the general govern- 
ment and of his native state. It is also fortunate 



140 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

that the jealousy of the states of Pennsylvania 
and Maryland prevented, until recently, the exe- 
cution of a canal in the lower part of the Valley 
of the Susquehanna ; while, under false views of 
economy, the improvement of so much of its up- 
per course as lies in Pennsylvania was retarded 
and opposed. Clinton, however, warmly as he 
desired the welfare of his native state, was govern- 
ed by no exclusive sectional views, and carefully 
weighed the relative advantages of the routes by 
the Susquehanna and the Mohawk, with a view 
both to general and local interests. His papers 
contain memoranda on this subject, which show 
the attention he bestowed upon it. When, how- 
ever, the State of Pennsylvania awoke to a sense of 
its true interests, Clinton furthered, by all the means 
in his power, the success of an application for fa- 
cilities by which the artificial navigations of the 
State of New-York might be brought into connex- 
ion with those projected in the Valley of the Sus- 
quehanna. Not content with this, he accepted an 
invitation to visit Pennsylvania, to enforce by his 
eloquence, and the influence of his presence, the 
praiseworthy attempts of the patriotic citizens of 
that state in urging the Legislature to emulate the 
glories and benefits of the New-York canals. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 141 



CHAPTER XL 

Western Limit of the early Settlements on the 
Mohawk. — Claims of Massachusetts. — These 
Claims are partially Admitted — Influx of Em- 
igration from JYeW'England. — Voyage of the 
Wadsworths. — State Roads. — Western Inland 
Lock JYavigation Company. — Its slow Progress 
and unsuccessful Result. — Communication be- 
tween the Hudson and Lake Champlain. — 
JSCorthern Carial. 

At the close of the Revolutionary war, the ex- 
treme western settlements of the State of New- 
York extended only a short distance beyond the 
Little Falls of the Mohawk. Even these had 
been disturbed and driven in during the war, as 
was Cherry Valley, which had been the scene of 
a massacre by the united forces of the Indians and 
Tories. The settlers of the Valley of the Mohawk, 
except for a short distance above Schenectady, 
w^ere all of German blood. A relic of Palatines, 
driven from the banks of the Rhine by the arms of 
Louis XIV., had received assistance from the gov- 
ernment of Queen Anne, and had been directed to 
the Colony of New- York. Their earliest seat was 
on the Schoharie Creek, whence for several years 



142 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

their only communication with the other parts of 
the colony was by a footpath, over which their 
products were carried on the backs of men, as 
was even the grain intended to be ground for their 
own consumption. The settlers in the Valley of 
the Mohawk made use of the river as far as Sche- 
nectady, whence a tolerable carriage-road led to 
Albany. 

The cessation of hostilities speedily led to an 
extension of cultivation as far as the Indian title 
had been extinguished ; and the enterprising na- 
tives of New-England began to turn their eyes to- 
w^ards the new countries of the West, as a recep- 
tacle for the swarms of their teeming population. 

The State of Massachusetts set up a claim both 
to the right of soil and of government of all the 
country not actually occupied which lay north of 
the forty-second degree of latitude, and thus to 
all that part of the state which lies west of Utica. 
A compromise was effected, by which the jurisdic- 
tion was held by New-York, but the right of soil 
to a large portion of the tract w^as vested in Mas- 
sachusetts. Much of this was almost immediately 
sold to parties who undertook to extinguish the In- 
dian title. 

The territory which New- York had retained for 
itself, namely, all lying east of the Seneca Lake, 
and extending from Lake Ontario southward to a 
line nearly coinciding with the southern end of the 



DEWITT CLINTON. 143 

first-named lake was divided by the Legislature 
of New-York into lots, which were granted to the 
soldiers and officers w^ho had served in the State 
line during the Revolutionary war. The state 
thus departed from the policy of the colonial gov- 
ernment, which had granted large tracts and man- 
ors to a few^ favourites, who had endeavoured to 
perpetuate the system of leasehold property. Such 
a tenure was repugnant to the natives of New- 
England, among whom, in the land of their birth, 
it was unknown. As the habits of soldiers are 
rarely adapted to the purpose of clearing and set- 
tling a wilderness, many of their lots were speedi- 
ly offered in the market, and real estate in fee thus 
became accessible to the emigrant. Even where 
the great grants made by the State of Massachu- 
setts existed, it became necessary to offer the lands 
for sale instead of attempting to lease them. 

The tide of emigration was thus directed into 
the western part of the state. Those who pro- 
posed to settle embarked at Schenectady in boats, 
and followed the course of the trader, or of the 
Indians themselves, through the streams and over 
the portages we have described. 

Among the earliest of these pioneers of civili- 
zation were James and William Wadsworth, na- 
tives of the State of Connecticut, who left their 
homes at an early age, and abandoned the society 
of which, by their education and connexions, they 



144 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

might have been' the ornament, for the purpose of 
reclaiming a wilderness. The voyage of these 
enterprising men, by the Hudson, which had not 
ceased to be regarded as perilous, and through the 
unimproved water-courses, which have been de- 
scribed, would furnish a tale of no little mterest, 
while the record of their persevering and success- 
ful labours would serve as an admirable lesson to 
the young and ambitious. Understanding fully 
the prejudices and feelings of their eastern breth- 
ren, they saw that no region, however fertile, 
could allure them to settle in it, if they could not 
obtain the lands on other terms than those of lease- 
hold. They also knew that the greater part ot 
the emigrating population had no other property 
than their own strong hmbs and resolute spirits, 
and that thus they could not purchase. They, in 
consequence, introduced the system of contracts, 
by which the industrious could be assured of ob- 
taining the fee of their settlements by the fruits of 
their labours, while the landholder was secured a 
fair price for his property. This method speedily 
acquired almost universal adoption, and has con- 
tributed in no small degree to peopling the west 
of the state with a hardy and independent popu- 
lation. It, in fact, did away with all the objec- 
tions to the immense size of the tracts granted by 
Massachusetts, which covered all the country west 



DEV^TITT CLINTON. 145 

of the Seneca Lake, and formed what would other- 
wise have been an odious monopoly. 

The modes in which the early settlers penetra- 
ted to the more remote points, and by which the 
foreign products that have become the neces- 
saries of civilized life were conveyed to them, 
were, as may be seen from the account of the 
original state of the communications, slow and la- 
borious. 

The growing importance of the region demand- 
ed means of conveyance, which, if not cheaper, 
should be more rapid, and the state was induced 
to make a road, which, taking its departure from 
Utica, was gradually extended to Buffalo. With 
the state road, two lines of turnpike, the one fol- 
lowing the Valley of the Mohawk, the other pass- 
ing through Cherry Valley, were brought into com- 
munication. And, by means of these, the cost of 
transportation by land was brought to a price as 
low as that by water, in spite of the improvements 
which were made in the navigation in the interval. 

In the year 1792, a company was chartered un- 
der the name of the Western Inland Lock Navi- 
gation Company. This association commenced its 
operations at the Little Falls of the Mohawk, 
around which a short canal, with a number of 
locks, was constructed ; this was finished in 1796* 
The next step was to unite the Mohawk with 
Wood Creek at Fort Stanwix ; and, finally, an ob^ 

K 



146 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

struction in the Mohawk at German Flats was 
overcome by a short cut and two locks. With 
these works, the improvements of the company 
ceased in 1799 ; and, although the charter permit- 
ted the extension of its operations to the Seneca 
Lake, nothing farther was done except in the way 
of surveys for the improvement of the Oneida out- 
let. Boats carrying seven or eight tons could, 
after the improvements which have been mention- 
ed were finished, make their way from the head of 
the Cayuga and Seneca Lakes to Schenectady; 
but the voyage occupied several weeks, and was 
both laborious and dangerous. The labour of 
men was the principal dependance for progress, 
as the structure of the vessels allowed sails to be 
used only when the wind was fair, and as towing- 
paths did not exist on any part of the communi- 
cation. The return was still more difficult. The 
Mohawk, when full, could hardly be ascended at 
all, and, v/hen less rapid, was so much interrupted 
by shallows and bars as to cause the most annoy- 
ing delays, and to render it necessary to limit the 
upward freight to Httle more than half of that 
which could be carried down the stream. Finally, 
the necessity of discharging at Schenectady, and 
the long portage thence to Albany, gave to the 
route by water but little advantage in cost over 
that by the roads, while it was vastly more te- 
dious 



DEWITT CLINTON. 147 

In this state the communicatians with the west- 
ern district remained until the Erie Canal was com- 
menced. That region, expressly suited by nature 
for the growth of wheat, could not send it to 
market, because the cost of transportation from all 
points to the west of Lake Cayuga exceeded the 
value in Albany. The fertile district beyond this 
lake was therefore either to be condemned to sol- 
itude, or to be tlirow^n into dependance on the 
British possessions in Canada. But this danger 
was not limited to the State of New-York; the 
whole of the shores of the upper lakes, a region of 
much greater extent and almost equal fertility, 
was in the same position. A temporary impulse 
was given to the cultivation of the western district 
durinor the war of 1812, when the demand for the 
supply of the armies brought a market to the doors 
of the settlers ; and now, for the first time, money 
entered into the operation of trade, which had 
hitherto consisted of little r^ore than barter and 
credits on the books of the .nerchants. In 18 10, 
Buffalo counted only forty houses, while the pres- 
ent site of Rochester exhibited a clearing of a 
few acres and a single log house. ^ 

The statesman who took the lead in procuring 
the act of incorporation of the Western Naviga- 
tion Company was General Schuyler. He has 
not hesitated to avow his obligations for hints de- 
rived from Elkanah Watson j but the soul of the 



148 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

undertaking existed in the enterprising merchants 
of the City of New-York, who were willing to ad- 
venture their capital in this bold undertaking. 
Among these are particularly to be noticed Robert 
Bowne, Thomas Eddy, and John Atkinson. The 
operations of the Western Inland Lock Navigation 
Company were of considerable benefit to the pub- 
lic, and, until the roads of which we have spoken 
were constructed, furnished the only channel for 
trade ; but they were wholly unproductive to their 
stockholders, upon some of whom they entailed 
ruin, and they ceased to be of any real value to 
the public after the system of turnpikes was in- 
troduced, except by maintaining a competition. 
The inefficiency of the operations of this company 
grew out of a radical defect in its plans. The ob- 
ject which was kept continually in view was that 
of improving the navigation of natural streams 
in their own beds, as contradistinguished to the 
method of making an artificial channel to serve as 
a substitute for the stream throughout its whole 
course, with its obvious extension into canals 
over grounds lying far from any natural water- 
course. 

So long as mere preliminary calculations were 
alone resorted to, it might have been thought best 
to improve the means afforded by nature ; the ori- 
ginal cost of such operations is the least, and it 
might be hoped that the low rate of tolls which 



DEWITT CLINTON. 149 

would be the consequence would more than com- 
pensate any extra cost in propelling the vessels. 
By actual trial, however, all such calculations have 
been shown to be unfounded ; for the difficulties 
and delays which attend a navigation in the bed of 
a stream, subject to alternate floods and droughts, 
are such as to set all calculations at defiance ; and 
the uniform result of experience is, that the trans- 
portation on a canal wholly artificial is far less 
costly than any attempt at improving the bed of 
a turbulent and variable river. It is probable, 
however, that, had this fact been well understood, 
the Western Inland Lake Navigation Company 
would never have entered upon its enterprise ; for 
the capital for a canal even from Albany to Utica 
could not have been collected among individuals 
at so early a date, and a knowledge of the true 
state of the case would have prevented the little 
that was subscribed from being contributed. The 
ill success of this enterprise was made use of as an 
argument against any farther operations; and it 
was urged that, where individual enterprise had 
failed, the state could not hope to be successful. 

On the other hand, it was fortunate that this en- 
terprise had not been attended with such profitable 
results as to induce its proprietors to desire to re- 
tain the chartered privileges they possessed, and 
thus to prevent action on the part of the state. It 
would, in truth, have been a most disastrous cir- 

N2 



150 AMERICAN BIOGUAPHY. 

cumstance had this great hne of internal commu- 
nication become private property. The delays, 
which the public did not regard, and the obstacles, 
which the sovereign power overcame with facili- 
ty, would have disheartened a private association 
or prevented its progress ; but, in the event of 
complete success, a monopoly would have been 
created which would have had interests very dif- 
ferent from those of the public, and a continual 
struggle, fatal perhaps to the one, and injurious to 
the other, must have been the result. 

It has been reserved for the experience of the 
State of New-York, when compared with that of 
some of its neighbours, to exhibit the advantage of 
keeping the great lines of internal communication 
in the hands of the sovereign power. It has also 
solved the question of the propriety of contracting 
a debt to be applied to the purposes of public im- 
provement. The experience of New-York has, 
indeed, been more fortunate than could have been 
anticipated; for the interest of the debt has not 
only been paid, but the principal in a great meas- 
ure extinguished by the profits of the enterprise. 
But it hardly requires a demonstration to prove 
that, even had the New-York canals failed to pay 
the interest on their cost, the state must still have 
derived a benefit, which would have rendered a 
tax to pay this interest no real burden to the com- 
munity ; and we shall find it recorded, to the credit 



DEWITT CLINTON. 151 

both of the subject of our memoir and of the Le- 
gislature of the state, that, when the practicabihty 
of the canals was once ascertained, a resort even 
to direct taxation, that bugbear of aspiring politi- 
cians, would not have been a barrier to their pro- 
ceedings. 

Besides the route from Albany to the westward, 
the continuous valleys of the upper Hudson and 
Lake Champlain pointed out a channel for an arti- 
j5cial navigation to the north. There was a time 
when the latter appeared even more important than 
the former. It was, when the subject of canals first 
attracted the attention of the Legislature, the seat 
of a more dense population and more extensive 
commerce. Circumstances in the soil and climate, 
however, have prevented this region from increas- 
ing in wealth as rapidly as the West. The line of 
the Hudson attracted attention even earlier than 
that of the Mohawk, and was intended to have 
been rendered practicable by a lock navigation, 
under a charter granted the same year as that of 
the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company. 
It was also improved by the state at the same time 
wath the Erie Canal ; but the results and conse- 
quences of this enterprise fell far short of those of 
the Western Canal. We shall not have occasion 
to refer to them hereafter, but can speak of the 
Northern Canal as a most praiseworthy enterprise, 



152 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

which has fulfilled every expectation that could 
have reasonably been formed in respect to it. 

It is in its bearing upon the defence of the coun- 
try that the importance of the Champlain Canal is 
most apparent. The United States is more vulner- 
able by the line of that lake and the Hudson than 
in any other part, and in two successive wars the 
British government has chosen it for the direction 
of hostile operations. At present, by the aid of 
steam communications on the river and lake, and 
of the canal which joins them, the same army may 
be ready to act, as circumstances may direct, in the 
defence of the City of New-York, or on the North- 
ern frontier ; and within four days, a body of troops 
collected on the seacoast to oppose invasion, may, 
if the danger of descent be over, be threatening 
Montreal or moving upon Quebec. The latter is 
the key of the more valuable British possessions ; 
and, should hostilities again arise, it is hardly 
probable that, in defiance of the experience of 
the late war, the importance of acting against it, 
to the exclusion of all other objects, will be over* 
looked. 



DEW ITT CLINTON. 153 



CHAPTER XII. 

Earliest Legislation of the State of JYew-York 
in relation to Canals. — Petition of Colles. — 
Report of Jeffrey Smith. — Messages of George 
Clinton. — Resolution of Judge Forman. — Sur- 
vey made hy Geddes, who first demonstrated the 
Practicability of a Route to Lake Erie. — Es- 
says of Jesse Hawley. — Resolution of Judge 
Piatt. — Appointment of a Board of Commis- 
sioners, of which Clinton is one. — Character of 
Morris, the senior Commissioner. — JVotice of 
the other Commissioners. 

Much discussion has been held, and innumera- 
ble tracts have been published, in respect to the 
merit of projecting or carrying into effect the ca- 
nal poKcy. of the State of New- York. The great- 
er part of these have grown out of mutual mis- 
understandings of the terms and subject of the 
dispute. It never has been doubted, that not only 
a few distinguished individuals, but even thousands 
of public-spirited citizens, have contributed, with 
the whole force of their talents and influence, to 
the progress and completion of the canals, yet no 
one of these was either so efficient or so influential 
as in any way to impair the claim set up for Clin- 



154 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

ton as having associated his name in imperishable 
characters with that of the great system of inter- 
nal improvements, of which the Erie Canal is the 
chief. 

The earliest legislative action in relation to ca- 
nals in the State of New- York was in 1784. An 
engineer of the name of Colles, who, before the 
Revolution, had been employed in an unsuccess- 
ful attempt to supply the City of New-York with 
water, petitioned the Legislature to aid him in an 
attempt to remove obstructions in the Mohawk 
River. A favourable report was made, but no le- 
gislative action followed. In the succeeding year 
he obtained a grant of $ 125 for the purpose " of 
enabling him to make an essay towards the removal 
of these obstructions, and making a plan thereof." 
During the next session (1786), and, as it appears, 
in pursuance of the plan of Colles, a bill was in- 
troduced by Mr. Jeffrey Smith, of Long Island, 
" for improving the navigation of the Mohawk 
River, Wood Creek, and Onondago River, with a 
view of opening an inland navigation to Oswego, 
and for extending the same, if practicable, to Lake 
Erie." This bill did not become a law. In it w^e 
find the first idea of extending a navigable com- 
munication to Lake Erie, but the route by Os- 
wego and Lake Ontario is evidently the one point- 
ed out. 

(xovernor George CHnton, in the year 179 J, 



DEWITT CLINTON. 155 

called the attention of the Legislature to the im- 
portance of internal communications in general. 
The committee to whom this part of the speech 
was referred, reported a law, in which, among oth- 
er things, provision was made for a survey of the 
ground between the Mohawk and Wood Creek, 
and farther proceedings w^ere held w^hich led to no 
valuable result. In 1792, the governor referred to 
the report made under the law of the preceding 
session, and again called the attention of the Le- 
gislature to the subject. The result of their ac- 
tion has been already spoken of, as the law incor- 
porating the " Western Inland Lock Navigation 
Company." 

From this time no farther action in respect to 
canals was had, either by the executive or the Le- 
gislature of the state, until 1808, when Judge For- 
man, at that time a member of the Legislature 
from Onondago county, proposed a concurrent 
resolution, to direct a survey to be made of the 
" most eligible and direct route for a canal from 
the Hudson River to Lake Erie." Judge Forman 
himself has stated, that he was led to propose this 
inquiry in consequence of his perusal of the article 
" Canal" in Rees's Encyclopedia, in which he found 
a full exposition of the advantages of canals over 
attempts to improve the navigation of rivers ; and 
that he therefore conceived a preference to a con- 
tinuous communication, over the extension of the 



156 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

operations of the Western Inland Lock Navigation 
Company and, th6 lockage around the Falls of Ni- 
agara, for the last of which an act of incorpora- 
tion had been obtained from the Legislature. The 
resolution was passed, the survey was made by 
Judge Geddes, and the perfect practicability of the 
route demonstrated ; yet the discovery of this most 
important fact led to no result, nor does it even ap- 
pear to have influenced the subsequent action of 
the Legislature. 

We have now to return to the pubhcation of a 
series of essays, which, although neglected when 
published, and for a long time forgotten, had an in- 
fluence which the practicable plan and available 
surveys of Judge Geddes had not. Jesse Hawley, 
in the year 1807, wrote a number of papers under 
the signature of Hercules, which appeared in the 
Genesee Messenger. In these essays he proposes 
a canal from Lake Erie to the Hudson, to be con- 
structed from its origin in that lake to Utica, upon 
the principle of an inclined plane. His project is 
founded on the report of Mr. Elliot, the agent of 
the Holland Land Company, in relation to the 
character of the mountain ridge, and on the belief 
that on the northern face of that elevation a con- 
tinuous level existed throughout the whole length 
of Lake Ontario. We shall see that this inference 
was very far from being correct. The plan was a 
most brilliant conception of genius, but was im- 



DEWITT CLINTON. 157 

practicable in consequence of the existence of an 
unknown but absolutely insuperable obstacle. The 
quantity of information which is collected in these 
essays is remarkable, and is even now of great 
value, both as respects the direct object in view, 
and the experience of foreign countries. There 
can indeed be no better proof of the importance 
of an established reputation in giving currency to 
a work, than the fact that these essays, so replete 
with learning and indicative of a high order of 
genius, should have produced no sensation. 

In 1809, Mr. Thomas Eddy, on behalf of the 
Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, pro- 
ceeded to Albany for the purpose of procuring the 
passage of a law authorizing the appointment of 
commissioners to explore a route for a canal from 
Oneida Lake to Seneca River, with a view to the 
execution of the canal by that company. At that 
moment Judge Piatt was the acknowledged leader 
of the federal party in the Senate, and its nomina- 
ted candidate for the office of governor. To him 
Eddy, who was his political adherent, applied for 
his influence in obtaining the passage of the pro- 
posed law. 

Judge Piatt, who had long been a resident of 
the western part of the state, and knew, perhaps, 
better than any other person, its wants and wishes ; 
who had, as it appears, long considered the policy 

which the state ought to pursue in the premises, 

O 



158 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

replied at once, " That the company had disap- 
pointed public expectation, and that it would be 
inauspicious to present any project which should 
be subject to that corporation." As a substitute, 
he proposed a plan for instituting a board of com- 
missioners to examine and survey the whole route 
from the Hudson to Lake Ontario, and to Lake 
Erie also. Mr. Eddy having been satisfied that 
this plan was to be preferred, it was agreed, on 
the suggestion of Judge Piatt, to call Clinton 
forthwith into their councils. He, as we have 
seen, held at that moment a preponderating in- 
fluence with the democratic party ; and, as the ob- 
ject involved no party views, not only Eddy, but 
Piatt also, was satisfied of the propriety of obtain- 
ing his sanction. 

It is one of those things which augur best for 
the permanence of our institutions, that, however 
imbittered may have been the disputes of mere 
party politics, however loudly the underlings and 
hack writers of factions may have declaimed 
against the motives and characters of their adver- 
saries, no sooner does danger threaten the coun- 
try, or is a scheme of real advantage presented, 
than the leaders of the opposing parties resort to 
each other as the most likely supporters of the 
necessary measures. Here was an occasion in 
which an astute politician might have seen an 
easy opportunity of winning popularity and ac- 



DEWITT CLINTON. 159 

cumulating electioneering capital ; yet Piatt sought 
Clinton as the first person to whom his scheme was 
to be imparted. On the other hand, Clinton could 
not have been insensible to the fact that the 
scheme was one on which it could be easy, as 
was afterward done, to shower down the most 
pointed ridicule, and to convert its proposal by 
Piatt into an engine of political warfare. These 
distinguished men, however, forgot all except its 
bearing on the prosperity of their country, and dis- 
cussed the plan only in its relations to the public 
welfare. The result of the interview was, that 
Piatt forthwith presented in the Senate a resolu- 
tion for the appointment of commissioners, and 
the resolution was seconded by Clinton. By the 
aid of their joint efforts, the resolution passed both 
houses; and Gouverneur Morris, Dewitt Clinton, 
Stephen Van Rensselaer, Simeon Dewitt, Peter B. 
Porter, William North, and Thomas Eddy, were 
named commissioners. Care was taken to take 
the names alternately from the two opposing par- 
ties; while Eddy himself, who closed the list, al- 
though a federalist, was not an active partisan. 

Morris w^as named by Judge Piatt in conse- 
quence of the high standing which he held in his 
party. Distinguished by his descent from a family 
possessed of manorial privileges, and the heir of 
an ample fortune, he had, at an early age, thrown 
himself, with all the ardour of youth and the en- 



160 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

thusiasm of genius, into the cause of the Revolution, 
and, abandoning his home, had become domiciha- 
ted in Pennsylvania. This state he had repre- 
sented in Congress under the confederation, and 
had been associated with Robert Morris in the 
schemes of finance by which the Revolutionary 
war was brought to a happy issue. In the con- 
vention which framed the existing Constitution he 
had filled a useful place ; and, on its adoption, had 
been nominated by Washington ambassador to 
France. Here he replaced Jefferson, who was re- 
called to fill the high post of Secretary of State. 
While in France, Morris became disgusted with 
the excesses of the popular party, and disappoint- 
ed their hopes of gaining the countenance of the 
representative of the republic whose successful re- 
sistance to royal power they for a time held up as 
a model. When that party acquired the ascend- 
ancy, his unpopularity with it was such as to ren- 
der it expedient that he should be recalled. 

On his return he retired to his paternal estate, 
and rebuilt the mansion of his ancestors ruined by 
the British troops. From this retirement he was 
speedily called to represent his native state in the 
Senate of the United States, where we have seen 
him at the same time the colleague and the oppo- 
nent of Clinton. 

Morris was endued by nature \^dth all the at- 
tributes necessary to the accomplished orator ; a 

L 



DEWITT CLINTON. 161 

fine and commanding person, a most graceful de- 
meanour, which was rather heightened than im- 
paired by the loss of one of his legs ; a voice of 
much compass, strength, and richness. These 
natural advantages he had carefully cultivated; 
grounded in classical literature in a manner far 
beyond what was then usual in America, he had 
continued to peruse the orators and poets of an- 
tiquity ; familiar with more than one living lan- 
guage, he was acquainted with all the best pro- 
ductions of modern literature. 

For style as literary productions, and still more 
for the manner of their delivery, his speeches 
would have held no mean rank among the pro- 
ductions he studied as models. He thus acquired 
an influence among persons who were his equals 
in all but the external graces and embellishments 
of oratory, which at the present moment appears 
extraordinary; and with a self-confidence which 
never deserted him, often arrogated to himself a 
higher place than they, when out of the sphere of 
his fascination, would have been willing to assign 
him. 

But, while thus qualified by natural gifts and 
careful study to acquire an influence, he wanted 
all the sound knowledge which was necessary in 
the office to which he w^as now appointed. With 
a feeling not unusual in classical scholars, he 
looked with contempt on the sciences, which 

02 



162 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

were then beginning to be brought into the ser- 
vice of industry, and which have since produced 
such astonishing revolutions in the state of the 
civihzed world. If, then, of all men living, he 
was the best qualified to exhibit in a popular light 
the advantages with which the adoption of a sys- 
tem of internal improvements would be attended, 
he was, perhaps, among all who could have been 
selected, the worst for the purpose of entering into 
the painful and laborious investigations on which 
alone a true exposition of these advantages could 
be founded, and on which the actual practicability 
of a canal from Albany to Lake Erie would prin- 
cipally rest. 

Morris had directed his thoughts at an early 
period to the navigable communications of the 
State of New- York 5 and evidence is extant that, 
even before the close of the Revolutionary war, 
he had declaimed with his accustomed eloquence 
upon the capabilities which existed for the exten- 
sion of its internal trade. In the year 1801 he 
had visited Niagara. His route was by the way 
of Oswego to Lake Ontario, and along that lake 
to the Niagara River. 

The vivid impressions of the scenery, soil, and 
climate which he received on this journey, are 
delineated in a letter which he wrote on his re- 
turn to his friend David Parish, of Hamburgh ; 
and in obvious reference to the route which he 



DEWITT CLINTON. 163 

had traversed, points out the possibihty of ma- 
king a communication for the passage of ships 
from the upper lakes to the Hudson. 

This letter is a finished piece of eloquence, 
wanting, in truth, only metrical form to be classed 
as a fine specimen of descriptive poetry. It has 
been more than once pubhshed, for the purpose of 
proving him to have been the original projector of 
the substitution of a canal for the communication 
by Lake Ontario. But, although the mere words 
of the passage which speaks of this navigation 
might be susceptible of such an interpretation, it is 
very clear from the context that he entertained no 
such idea. 

The idea of ships sailing from the great West- 
ern inland seas to the Hudson is in keeping with 
the lockage of the Falls of Niagara, and the im- 
provement of the navigation of the Oswego and 
Mohawk Rivers, but it is utterly at variance with 
the idea of a continuous canal. 

Having already given utterance to a prediction 
that vessels would descend from the upper lakes 
to the Hudson, it will not surprise us to find Mor- 
ris entering into the execution of the duties of his 
office of canal commissioner with a zeal that dis- 
tanced the more cautious movements of his less 
excitable colleagues. 

We cannot, however, but consider that the en- 
terprise was not furthered by the appointment of 



164 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

Morris, and that the pubHc mind would have been 
more easily satisfied of the feasibility of the project 
of the canal, had Judge Piatt permitted himself 
to be named on the commission instead of Morris. 
With his sound and steady judgment, it would 
have been impossible that any plan bearing im- 
practicability on its face should have been laid 
before the public. Piatt, however, seems to have 
shrunk with innate modesty from assuming the first 
place on a commission established by a resolution 
drawn by himself. Here, therefore, all direct 
agency on his part in the canal policy of the state 
seems to have ceased ; yet he is well entitled to 
the merit of having made the first efficacious step 
towards the attainment of the great object of uni- 
ting the lakes with the Atlantic. 

The remaining members of the commission are 
well and advantageously known to the world. In 
particular, Stephen Van Rensselaer ought to be 
cited, for the long, steady attention w^hich he de- 
voted to the furtherance of internal improvements. 
From this time to the day of his death he was 
strenuous in the promotion of the cause, and held, 
from the date v/hen the actual construction of the 
canals w^as commenced, the office of a commission- 
er. The last person who inherited an entailed es- 
tate before the system was swept away by the Rev- 
olution, he was for many years the sole surviver of 
the ancient aristocracy ; yet such was the affabil- 



DEWITT CLINTON. 165 

ity of his manners and the benevolence of his dis- 
position, that he enjoyed deserved popularity with 
those most democratic in their principles. Possess- 
ed of an estate which had descended to him from 
the first projector of a settlement for any purpose 
but trade on the banks of the Hudson, he exerci- 
sed his povv^ers as landlord with such moderation 
as to secure the devoted attachment of his ten- 
antry. 

In the cause of internal improvement he not 
only aided by his services as canal commissioner, 
but lent his powerful name and embarked funds 
in the earliest project of a railroad, the first link 
of that chain which, running parallel to the Erie 
Canal, will, by facilitating personal communica- 
tion, enhance its benefits. 

Simeon Dewitt had served with distinction as 
an engineer during the war of the ?.evolution, at 
a time when the learning required in that branch 
of the service was extremely rare. He held, from 
the close of the Revolution to the time of his death, 
the ofhce of surveyor-general to the state, and un- 
der his direction, among other important duties, 
the great survey of the military townships was ac- 
complished ; a work which, from its extreme accu- 
racy, has prevented all disputes about boundaries 
among the landholders of that region. 

Eddy has been already mentioned as a director 
of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, 



166 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

and was, at the moment, looked to as the practical 
man of the commission, in which respect the ap- 
pointment was certainly his due. 

Peter B. Porter had distinguished himself by a 
very able speech, delivered in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, in support of a resolution introduced by 
himself, directing an inquiry into the propriety of 
appropriating the proceeds of a part of the public 
lands to purposes of internal improvement. A 
resident of the extreme western portion of the 
state, he had collected a vast amount of valuable 
information ; and, although he finally differed from 
his colleagues in relation to the comparative merits 
of the Ontario and Erie routes, his aid was not un- 
important in the early stages of the inquiry. 

General North had served with great reputation 
in the Revolutionary war, and by his talents, his 
landed property, and the remembrances of his mil- 
itary actions, was deservedly possessed of great in- 
fluence, both politically and morally. 

Of such materials was the commission formed, 
and the results of its operations justified the Le-^ 
gislature in the wisdom of its selections. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 167 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The Canal Commissioners undertake to examine 
the Route. — Clinton and others proceed by Wa- 
ter from Schenectady.- — Their Progress to Ge- 
neva, after a Deviation to Oswego. — Journey by 
Land to JYiagara, and return to Albany by the 
way of Ithaca. — Meetings of the Commission- 
ers at Utica arid Chippeway. — Diversity of 
Opinion in the Board. — Opinion of Morris* — 
Clinton's Views prevail in the Board. — Report 
drawn up by Mr. Morris. — Examination of its 
Features and Consequences. 

The commissioners appointed under the resolu- 
tion of Judge Piatt entered forthwith on the duties 
of their office. Surveys were directed to be made, 
under the superintendence of Simeon Dewitt, the 
surveyor-general of the state, who was a member 
of the board ; and the commissioners resolved to 
proceed personally to examine the country. In 
most cases this is an empty ceremony. The best 
qualified and most practised engineers can decide 
little by the eye alone ; and those who have not 
the habit of judging of levels and distances will 
be wholly at fault. The plans of public improve- 
ments must therefore be decided upon in the cabi- 



168 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

net by reference to accurate profiles and maps, and 
not in the field. In the present instance, a formal 
progress of the commissioners through the region 
to be examined was of vital importance. It was 
necessary to arouse the attention of the people to 
the importance of the object, and excite a curiosi- 
ty which should lead to the study of the benefits 
likely to flow from the completion of the project. 

The expediency of such a progress having been 
decided, the month^of July (1810) was appointed 
for the purpose ; and it was agreed that Morris and 
Van Rensselaer should proceed by land, while 
Clinton, with the rest of the commissioners and a 
corps of surveyors, should take the Mohawk at 
Shenectady, and follow the existing lines of com- 
munication as far as practicable. 

The survey of the most important part of th6 
route was intrusted to Judge Geddes, who had al- 
ready explored a part of it. 

Clinton and Eddy left New-York on the 30th 
of June in the steamboat for Albany. This voy- 
age occupied, as was usual in that early period of 
steam navigation, upv/ard of thirty hours. The 
2d of July was occupied in a meeting of the board, 
and laying in stores and equipage for the voyage ; 
the 3d in reaching Schenectady, and it was not 
until the afternoon of the 4th that the party em- 
barked. Two boats were provided for their ac- 
commodation, one of which was occupied by the 



DEWITT CLINTON. 169 

commissioners, the other by servants and baggage. 
Of the latter there was about a ton and a half, as 
it was necessary to carry almost every article of 
ordinary comfort. The party suftered from having 
trusted to the sleeping quarters Avhich were pre- 
sented on the route, and would have experienced 
less fatigue had it been provided in addition with 
tents. The boats were of the burden of about 
ten tons, w^ere provided with sails to use when the 
wind was fair, and were propelled on other occa- 
sions by setting poles. In using these, the men 
walked along a gangway formed for the purpose 
on the gunwale, and pressed against the poles 
with their shoulders. The boats were without 
decks, but were sheltered by an awning and cur- 
tains. The party within had sufficient space to sit 
and read or write, but there was not room to spread 
their beds. 

The river was low, and, although the boats were 
light, the passage of several of the rapids v/as at- 
tended w^ith difficulty. Utica, therefore, was not 
reached until late on the evening of the fifth day. 

The parties of Morris and Van Rensselaer occu- 
pied the whole of the principal hotel in Utica, and 
the voyagers took their lodging at another. At 
the present day the same hotel has been enlarged 
until it can conveniently lodge several hundred 
guests, and there are three or fom- others of almost 
equal extent. In 1810, the regular public com- 

P 



170 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

munication between Albany and Utica was by a 
single daily stage, which was thirty-six hours in 
performing the journey. From Utica to Geneva 
the stage ran only three times a week, wliile be- 
yond that point none had been established. 

The freight of goods by the river to Schenecta- 
dy was seventy-five cents per ton, the carriage by 
wagon a dollar per ton. 

Utica at that time contained 300 houses, inhab- 
ited by 1650 persons. 

A meeting of the board was held on the 10th 
July at Utica, which adjourned to reassemble at 
Rome on the 12th. 

At Utica, General North and Judge Geddes 
joined the party in the boats, and, leaving Utica on 
the 11th, the commissioners reached Rome the 
same day. Here the proposed meeting was held, 
and an incident occurred in the discussion which 
we shall refer to on a future occasion. 

At Rome the routes by land and water separa- 
ted, and the next place of meeting was fixed for 
Geneva. The party in the boats passing the cut 
at Fort Stanwix, entered and descended Wood 
Creek, traversed the Oneida Lake, and, running 
down its rapid outlet, reached Three River Point 
before sundown on the 15th July. Thence they 
followed the stream to Oswego, which they reach- 
ed the next evening. 

A day was spent in examining the neighbour- 



DEWITT CLINTON. 171 

hood of Oswego, and on the morning of the 18th 
the commissioners proceeded on foot up the bank 
of the river for five miles, in order to facihtate 
the passage of the boats up the rapids. Re-em- 
barking, Three River Point v>^as reached at two 
o'clock on the 19th, and the Seneca River enter- 
ed. This was found to be a dead and sluggish 
stream until its confluence with the Cayuga out- 
let was passed, whence there was a rise of fifty 
feet into the Seneca Lake. Geneva was not 
reached until the afternoon of the 24th, and at the 
close of the twentieth day after leaving Schenec- 
tady. Deducting the three days spent in the de- 
viation to Oswego, seventeen days were spent in 
the voyage, which, as it was performed in light 
vessels, may be considered as giving less than the 
average time of passing over this distance by the 
existing water communications. The same dis- 
tance was performed by the packet-boats on the 
canal in thirty-six hours, and by the lighter class 
of freight-boats it is passed over in about fifty 
hours. The latter carry with ease from forty to 
fifty tons, while the capacity of some of the heavy 
boats, even before the enlargement of the canal 
was commenced, reached nearly to a hundred tons. 
This voyage has been dwelt upon at some 
length, because it affords a standard of compari- 
son whereby the great advantages derived froip 



172 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

the Erie Canal, in the facihty and cheapness of 
transportation, may be conveniently illustrated. 

It is unnecessary to enter into the- detail of the 
remainder of the journey. Clinton, with his par- 
ty, proceeded to the Niagara River, which they 
crossed to Newark in Canada, visited the falls, 
and returned by the ridge road, then newly cut 
through the woods. On returning to Geneva, a 
deviation from the direct route was made to Itha- 
ca, at the head of Lake Cayuga, whence the state 
road was joined at Auburn. Finally, on the 19th 
August, Schenectady was reached, and, after a de- 
lay of a day in Albafiy, Chnton returned by the 
steamboat to New-York. 

The feasibility of a canal to Lake Erie, in a 
direct course, was necessarily a subject of discuss- 
ion at the several meetings of the board to which 
we have alluded. The relative advantages of the 
direct route, and that by the way of Lake On- 
tario, were also canvassed. Clinton appears to 
have avoided any positive expression of his 
views until the meeting at Chippeway, when he 
had, by personal information and examination of 
the surveys of Judge Geddes, satisfied himself that 
a canal of the ordinary character was practica- 
ble from the Hudson to Lake Erie. The practica- 
bility of the other route had long been obvious. 
It therefore became a question merely of policy, 
which ought to be adopted. On this head his 



DEWITT CLINTON. 



173 



decision had been made up at an early stage of 
the investigation. He saw, upon the proposed Hne 
from Rome to Buffalo, a country capable, by its 
fertility, of supporting the proposed canal; he 
weighed the difficulties and expense attending 
transshipment from vessels calculated to navigate 
the lakes to canal-boats ; and, more than all, he 
dreaded that the trade of the West might be di- 
verted to the St. Lawrence, and its growing pop- 
ulation compelled to form connexions in business 
with the British colonies. 

Morris, of more sanguine temperament, had come 
at a much earlier period to similar conclusions, and 
had made up his mind that all material obstacles 
must give way to the Erie route. He adopted in 
its full extent, and without waiting for the result 
of the surveys, the brilliant but crude conception 
of Hawley. This plan he urged with all his elo- 
quence on his colleagues at their meeting in Uti- 
ca. The occurrence is thus stated in the journal 
of his tour kept by Clinton. 

" At this meeting, the senior commissioner talk- 
ed wildly. He was for breaking down the mound 
of Lake Erie, and letting out the waters to follow 
the level of the country, so as to form a sloop 
navigation with the Hudson, and without any aid 
from any other water." 

However correct, then, were Morris's views of 
the pohcy of the direct route to Lake Erie, it is 

P2 



174 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

evident that he had formed no practical idea of the 
mode in which it might be accomphshed, nor did 
he at any subsequent period reduce his soaring- 
imagination to the level of common sense. 

To the policy of the direct route to Lake Erie 
all the commissioners save one assented, and at 
the final meeting at Chippeway Clinton was com- 
pelled to combat on the one hand the magnifi- 
cent but impracticable project of Morris, and on 
the other the plausible and popular plan of ad- 
hering as closely as possible to the natural course 
of the waters. The expense of constructing a ca- 
nal from Albany to Oswego, and another around 
the Falls of Niagara, would have been much less 
than that of a direct canal to Lake Erie, and 
would therefore have been more certainly within 
reach of the resources of the state ; and had the 
sole object of the navigation been that of forming 
a communication mth the shores of the upper 
lakes, the argument would have been unansw^era- 
ble. 

Had this opinion prevailed, the consequences 
would have been disastrous to the State of New- 
York ; the current of population which has been 
borne on the waters of the canal to every point 
within its reach, and which has made the region 
west of Rome the richest agricultural district in 
the Union, would have flowed onward to Lake 
Erie, and even more distant regions, to which the 



DEWITT CLINTON. 175 

Ontario route would have given a more ready ac- 
cess. 

On the other hand, had the scheme of Morris 
been the only one submitted to the public, its ut- 
ter want of practicability vv^ould have defeated the 
chance of any farther action. At this point, then, 
do the paramount services of Clinton in the ca- 
nal policy of the state commence. Up to this mo- 
ment he had been an efficient and ardent friend of 
a system of internal improvement, but had waited 
for personal inspection to satisfy himself of its 
practicability and importance. He from this mo- 
ment took the lead in all the measures which were 
necessary for its accomplishment. 

Clinton's views were sanctioned by the majority 
of his colleagues, but he saw the importance of se- 
curing a unanimous report. It was believed by 
some of the commissioners that Morris had been 
convinced by the arguments of Clinton ; at all 
events, the subject had been fully discussed in his 
presence. By courtesy, Morris, as senior commis- 
sioner, was entitled to the right of drawing the 
report of the board, unless a difference of opinion 
had arisen of sufficient moment to have justified 
his colleagues in intrusting that duty to another. 
Had this been done, three adverse reports would 
in all probability have been presented, and the 
popular arguments in favour of the Ontario and 
Niagara route would have been brought forward. 



176 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

By leaving Morris in possession of his prescriptive 
right, this danger would be avoided ; and it was 
believed that any objection which might be raised 
to Morris's individual views would be obviated 
by the exhibition of the surveys and practical con-' 
elusions of Judge Geddes, 

The report of the board was, in consequence, 
drawn by Morris, and well sustained his veteran 
reputation for ability as a writer, and for enlarged 
views as a statesman. It established the practi- 
cability of an inland canal, and illustrated its ad- 
vantages in a masterly manner. But it also in- 
cluded the idea of creatino; an artificial river from 
the elevation of Lake Erie to the Hudson, and a 
digression into a long exposition of the facilities 
and advantages of an inclined plane canal, in 
which rivers and lakes were to be passed by 
aqueducts, and valleys by mounds. This plan, 
w^hich, in the hands of Hawley, who argued from 
imperfect knowledge of the country, and from a 
general view of its qualifications, was a brilliant 
conception, became ridiculous when contrasted 
with the actual levels. From these it appeared 
that, besides minor obstacles, the wide and deep 
chasm of the Cayuga Lake fell so far below the 
Jevel of a uniform slope, that it would require to 
be passed by a mound and aqueduct, wdiich, if 
not impossible in the nature of things, was ren- 
dered so by the enormous expenditure it must 
have occasioned. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 



177 



On the meeting of the commissioners to consider 
the report, these objections were apparent. Mo- 
tives of deUcacy, and the personal respect they all 
bore to Morris, prevented any proposition being 
made for striking out this portion of it. Some of 
the com-missioners were, in fact, inclined to leave 
it to be signed by Morris as senior commissioner, 
and thus avoid affixing their names to it Clin- 
ton, however, urged the importance of the appear- 
ance of unanimity, and pointed out the fact that, 
while Morris had not refrained from expressing 
his own opinions, he had, at the same time, avoid- 
ed committing his colleagues as sanctioning them, 
and had fairly declared that there was room for 
difference of opinion. He had also referred to the 
surveys, whence the true state of the case might 
be at once inferred by all who should with intel- 
ligence examine the subject. 

" In respect to the inland navigation," says the 
report, " from the lakes to the Hudson River, the 
commissioners beg leave to refer for information to 
the annexed reports and maps of Mr. James Ged- 
des, employed at their request by the surveyor- 
general. From these it is evident that such navi- 
gation is practicable. Whether the rmde here 
sketched out will hereafter be pursued, whether a 
better way may not be found, and other questions 
subordinate to these, can only be resolved at a fu- 
Uire time, when an intelligent man, regularly bred 



178 



AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 



to this business, shall, under the direction of those 
on whom the pubhc may think proper to devote 
this superintendence, have made a more exact and 
careful scrutiny than the time and means of the 
commissioners would permit." 

As a farther concession to the opinions of his 
colleagues, the report says, '^ Preliminary points 
are to be adjusted, and of these the first is, 
Wliether it is to be made for sloops or barges. 
The expense of the former will, it is believed, be 
at least double that of the latter. Another ques- 
tion. Whether it shall be carried along an inclined 
plane, or by a line ascending and descending, must 
be directed by a comparison of the expense and 
of the utility each way.'^ 

If Morris, therefore, had taken advantage of his 
position as canal commissioner to place his indi- 
vidual opinions in a prominent light, he had made 
no unfair use of his seniority in suppressing those 
of his colleagues. They, on the other hand, were 
justified in trusting that the pubhc would not ac- 
cept or reject a scheme of so much importance 
without a close and deliberate examination -, and 
Clinton was a behever in the final triumph of good 
sense in all questions fairly submitted to the people. 
Clinton was justified in the course he took on 
this occasion by the result. The report excited a 
prodigious sensation. There were some who were 
qualified to judge, and who, aware of the practica- 



DEWITT CLINTON. 179 

bility of a canal to Lake Erie upon ordinary prin- 
ciples, regretted that the project of the inchned 
plane had ever been broached. These received 
the report with a feeling of disappointment. It 
did not alter their well-founded belief, but it caus- 
ed them to fear that a scheme practicable in itself 
might be defeated by the ridicule which they saw 
must be cast upon the stupendous project of Mor- 
ris. Those who were also quahlied to judge of 
the plan, but were as yet unacquainted with the 
circumstances, were not seduced by the eloquence 
of Morris from an examination of the documents 
appended to the report ; and, on mature delibera- 
tion, became satisfied that a plan of less imposing 
magnificence w^as feasible. 

At that time, however, the state numbered but 
few who possessed the knowledge which would 
have enabled them to examine such a question 
with intelligence. The multitude was therefore 
divided into two great parties ; the one was car- 
ried away by the eloquence of Morris, and saw in 
the splendour of the enterprise he proposed, not 
only a source of wealth to the state, but of hon- 
our in the execution of a work more grand in con- 
ception than Babylonian majesty had dreamed of, 
or Roman energy had accomplished ; the other 
revolted at the scheme, as one far in advance of 
the time, and likely to be ruinous by loading the 
state with an inextinguishable debt. The report 



180 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

thus afforded ample room for discussion ; and wheu^ 
by an exhibition of a plan founded on sound prin- 
ciples, all the objections which had been raised 
against that of Morris had been obviated, it was 
too late to have recourse to new arguments against 
it ; and many of those w^ho on the first view had 
opposed the canal, became converts to its practica- 
bihty and utility when they saw that the arguments 
which had been used against it had ceased to be 
applicable. 

This first report, then, had the merit, from its 
very extravagance, of exciting the public atten- 
tion in a degree far gi'eater than could a paper 
containing no more than an accurate exposition of 
the facts ascertained by the commissioners, and the 
proposal of a plan founded on the experience of 
other countries. Morris therefore rendered an es- 
sential service to the cause of internal improve- 
ments, not merely by his honest but mistaken zeal 
in its behalf, but by provoking discussions which 
a man of less genius but of more practical talent 
would have avoided. 

The report was presented to the Legislature in 
due course ; and on its reception, Clinton, who 
now prepared to take the lead in all measures cal- 
culated to further this great scheme of internal im- 
provement, brought a bill into the Senate for the 
purpose of continuing the investigations, and pre- 
paring for the execution of the project. By this 



DEWITT CLINTON. 181 

bill, which became a law, the same commissioners 
were continued, and the members of the board in- 
creased by the addition of Robert Fulton and 
Robert L. Livingston. Fifteen thousand dollars 
were appropriated for farther surveys; and the 
commissioners were authorized to apply to the 
general government, or to those of any of the in- 
dividual states, for assistance in the accomplish- 
ment of the canal. 

In compliance with this law, full and complete 
surveys were made under the direction of the com- 
missioners, and a report was made in 1812 to the 
Legislature ; in this the inclined plane was formal- 
ly abandoned, and a plan presented identical in 
its great features with that which was actually ex- 
ecuted. The intervention of the war at this epoch 
put an end to all active proceedings, and the ac- 
tion of the Legislature on this report will fall 
with more propriety into a subsequent portion of 
this memoir. 

Q 



182 AMERICAN BIOGRAP HY^ 



CHAPTER XIV. 

OHgin and Growth of the Democratic Party.-- 
Its Triumph in the Election of Jefferson,— 
George Clinton chosen Vice^resident in the 
place of Burr.— His Pretensions to he the Suc- 
cessor of Jefferson.— He is Passed over.— Jeal- 
ousy of Virginia.— All Aid to the Mw-York 
Canals is refused.— Deivitt Clinton is named' 
as a Candidate for the Presidency.— Examina- 
tion of his Course in relation to the War. 

The party which assumed to itself the exclusive 
title of democratic was made up of many hetero- 
geneous materials. It had been organized, in the 
first instance, as an opposition to the administration 
of Washington, on the questions of the proclama- 
tion of neutrality and the ratification of Jay's 
treaty. This opposition was gladly joined by the 
remnant of the anti-federahsts, and by many of 
the more warm federalists, who had been disap- 
pointed in obtaining office under the new govern- 
ment. The cabinet of Washington had been it- 
self divided on these questions, and thus the secre- 
tary of state became the most prominent man of 
the new party. Even among the anti-federalists 
the shades of opinion were various in the extreme, 



t) E W I T T CLINTON. 183 

from those who would have been content with a 
federation possessing even less than the limited 
powers to which the old Congress had restricted it- 
self, to those who desired a strong and firm central 
government, but preferred that its popular branches 
should possess a greater degree of authority, and 
the power of the executive be more limited than 
had been done by the Constitution. The two most 
opposite opinions were thus united in opposition on 
a single point, that which held the exclusive au- 
thority of the state sovereignties, and that which 
was for deriving all power without intervention 
from the people. The party therefore strengthen- 
ed itself to the South among the rich and power- 
ful planters, who possessed a local influence which 
the action of the general government diminished ; 
w^hile it numbered to the North the hardy yeoman- 
ry, who retained the revolutionary feeling which 
had led to the breaking up of entails and the ab- 
rogation of manorial privileges. Propagating in 
the latter case the doctrine of the largest liberty, 
the party was joined by all the foreigners who 
had fled from the oppression of their native gov- 
ernments. The natives of England and Scot- 
land, on the other hand, who sought to become 
.citizens of the United States for the purposes of 
commerce, were ranged in the federal party. 

The question of a national bank produced a 
new point of difference between those who admit- 



J84 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

ted that the Constitution gave every power inci- 
dent or collateral to those actually granted in 
terms, and those who adhered to the mere letter of 
the instrument. 

So long as Washington retained the office of 
president, his transcendent greatness of character, 
and the strong hold he held on the affections of 
his countrymen, prevented the rising party from 
taking the form of a steady and uniform opposi- 
tion. He had himself the faculty of training to 
his service talent of every variety, and making the 
most discordant opinions work together for the 
promotion of the general welfare. Jefferson and 
Hamilton, the imbodied personifications of the 
two most opposite opinions, were both retained in 
his cabinet, and were both efficient in bringing to 
a successful result the difficult experiment of a 
form of government without example, as it has 
hitherto been without parallel. 

The determination of Washington to retire from 
a station that he might have held so long as it 
pleased him, was the signal for the organization 
of the two opposing parties. Adams, the Vice- 
President, became the candidate of the one, and 
Jefferson of the other. A new element of divis- 
ion was thus introduced, for sectional feelings 
were enlisted in the disputes, and attempts were 
mutually made to array the North against the 
South. Adams was elected in preference to his 



DEWITT CLINTON. 185 

competitor; and, had he possessed either popular 
arts or clear-sighted views, might have secured 
the constant triumph of the party which had sup- 
ported him. In the former, however, he was de- 
ficient, and his want of popularity was aggravated 
by two injudicious acts, by which the liberty of 
the press was menaced, and the right of personal 
liberty invaded. The alien and sedition laws, of 
v/hich he was, in popular opinion, the instigator, 
furnished his opponents with a well-founded means 
of attack. He still had one chance of retaining 
his power. The aggressions of Great Britain on 
our commerce had been almost put an end to 
by the operations of Jay's treaty, while those of 
France were not only continued, but were aggra- 
vated by a feeling growing out of that very trea- 
ty. Hence a good and just cause of war against 
that nation arose, and hostilities were actually 
commenced by a law authorizing the capture and 
detention of French cruisers and privateers. To 
carry on these hostilities a navy was created, and, 
for less obvious reasons, an army was imbodied. 

A universal burst of popular feeling hailed the 
war wdth France, and the leaders of the opposition 
were thus left without the means of attacking the 
administration with success. The strong feeling of 
national pride was about to be awakened, and this, 
as in 1813, would probably have swept away 
every landmark of part}'. 

Q2 



186 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

It appears probable that the great preparations 
of the administration of Adams had other views 
than mere defensive operations. The strengthen- 
ing of the navy was well calculated to place the 
United States in an imposing attitude in respect to 
Great Britain, as well as to clear the seas of the 
picaroons bearing the French flag. But the well- 
organized and admirably-equipped army, of which 
Hamilton was in the actual, although Washington 
held the nominal command, was not called for by 
any fear of invasion from France, and the course 
of events appeared to be throwing the United 
States into an alliance with Great Britain, 

It may therefore appear far from improbable 
that a great scheme of conquest and national agv 
grandizement had been planned in the secret coun-^ 
cils of the federal party. Cuba was the recepta- 
cle of the bucaneers who preyed upon the neutral 
commerce of America, and, from the alliance of 
Spain with France, must have become the centre 
of any hostile action on the part of the former. 
It was, of course, obvious that, when the hostilities 
against France should become a formal war, Spain 
would in fact, if not by absolute declaration, be- 
come a party to it. It is therefore not an unlikely 
surmise that the army of 1798 was intended to 
act against the Spanish colonies of Louisiana and 
Florida, nay, perhaps with the aid and concurrence 
of Great Britain, against Cuba, or Mexico itself. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 187 

The obvious tendency of the acts of the admin- 
istration of Adams, whether so intended or not, to 
bring the United States into the coahtion against 
revolutionary France, furnished the opposition with 
a bond of union. By this it was kept together, in 
spite of the heterogeneous character of the materi- 
als of which we have seen it to be originally made; 
and the habit of acting in concert under a steady 
discipline, either fused all the various opinions into 
one common mass, or silenced the expression of 
such as were not avowed by the papers which be- 
came the organs of the party. In the faith thus 
publicly expressed the younger portion of the 
community was educated; and what may have at 
first been no more than an assumption of principles 
calculated for political effect, became the sincere 
belief of at least half of the youth of the United 
States. 

Whatever may have been the intentions of the 
party with which he acted, Adams did not carry 
out even the first steps of the plan. Instead of 
exciting the hostile feeling against France to the 
height of a war in all its forms, he sought and ef- 
fected a reconciliation with that country. By this 
the numerous active spirits who had sought occu- 
pation in arms, or had enrolled themselves as vol- 
unteers, were disgusted, and many of them were 
speedily classed in the ranks of his opponents. 
His own party was distracted, and yielded him 



188 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

only a feeble support, or sought to abandon him 
for some more acceptable candidate. In the 
mean time, his administration did not adapt its 
measures to the new state of things ; the army 
was not disbanded ; measures for the increase of 
the navy were persisted in ; and the taxes impo- 
sed in view of a war were not taken off. His 
adroit adversaries seized these points of his policy 
as open to attack, and in the outcry raised against 
a naval force, a standing army, and taxes in time 
of peace, found the most efficient weapons for 
overthrowing his power. 

In this they were so successful that they ven- 
tured on running two candidates for the presiden- 
cy, in order to secure both that office and the place 
of vice-president to members of their party. This 
was rendered necessary by an existing provision 
of the Constitution, which has since been repealed, 
by which the office of vice-president fell to the 
candidate for the presidency who should receive 
the second number of votes. 

The result of this bold measure in the election 
of Jefferson as President, and Burr as Vice-Presi- 
dent, and the suspicion of an attempted collusion 
with their federal opponents, to which the latter 
was exposed, are familiar facts. 

In this struggle and final triumph the elder 
Clinton bore an important part, and Dewitt Clin- 
ton figured towards its close as an efficient agent. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 189 

They had, as we have seen, been among the mod- 
erate opponents to the federal constitution, on the 
ground of state rights ; and although George Clin- 
ton had finally acquiesced in the vote of the state 
convention, he had been immediately assailed by 
an opposition to his re-election as governor. Thus 
driven into opposition, he had become the decided 
supporter of Jefferson, and had aided most power- 
fully in securing him the vote of New-York. In 
the intrigues by which Burr was so near taking 
the first instead of the second rank, the friends of 
the Clintons were the undeviating supporters of 
Jefferson. 

We have seen the prominent part which Dewitt 
Clinton took in the Senate of the United States in 
support of the administration of Jefferson. His 
seat in that body was held for a short time, and 
with this short exception, he, with his uncle, 
whose re-election as governor accompanied the 
triumph of the democratic party, were fully occu- 
pied by their executive duties and the party strug- 
gles of their own state. On the re-election of 
Jefferson, George Clinton became vice-president, 
and a wider field of politics was opened. From 
former usage, he felt himself entitled to be consid- 
ered as the person to be selected as the candi- 
date of his party for the oflSce of president. On 
the other hand, Virginia was unwilling to part 
with the prescriptive claim to that office, and the 



190 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

secretary of state seemed to be preferred by the 
incumbent of the office ; mutual jealousies arose, 
and the general administration manifested neutral- 
ity in the schisms of the party in New-York, if not 
actual preference for those who had been denoun- 
ced by it. 

With a just sense of duty to the country at large, 
and his native state in particular, George Clin- 
ton urged measures of preparation for defence, and 
particularly the fortification of the harbour of New- 
York. He also appears never to have been in fa- 
vour of the entire disbandment of the army, or the 
neglect of the navy. The embargo received his 
warm support, not as a measure intended as a sub- 
stitute for a war with England, but as one of di- 
rect preparation; and we have on it on record that 
he urged upon the president, after the adoption of 
that measure, the equipment and manning of all 
the vessels remaining in the navy. For this meas- 
ure he urged the motives of assuming an imposing 
attitude in aid of negotiation, of being prepared in 
the event of a war, and of alleviating the distress 
of the class of citizens on whom the pressure of 
the embargo fell most severely. 

In these views Dewitt Clinton concurred most 
cordially with his uncle; and we have seen that 
when the defence of the harbour of New- York 
was neglected by the government, he was the 



DEWITT CLINTON. 191 

principal instrument in obtaining appropriations 
from the state for the purpose. 

When the distress produced by the embargo 
became so serious as to threaten a loss of the ma- 
jorities which the democratic party had hitherto 
commanded, Dewitt Clinton presided at a meeting 
in the Park, which pledged itself to the support of 
the administration on that measure, which nothing 
but the belief of its being a preparation for w^ar 
could have rendered tolerable. 

To the feeble and inefficient measures of non- 
importation and non-intercourse which succeeded 
the embargo, Clinton ^vas decidedly opposed. He 
viewed them as imposing all the privations of a 
war without any of its advantages, and urged the 
adoption of a more energetic course. 

When Jefferson, in pursuance of the example of 
self-denial set by Washington, retired from the 
presidential chair, the claims of George Clinton to 
the succession w^ere passed over. His advanced 
age was a sufficient reason for this ; but there were 
not a few of the democratic party who would even 
then have desired that Dewitt Clinton should have 
been the candidate. At the caucus of members 
of Congress by whom Madison was nominated as 
the successor of Jefferson, ninety-four were pres- 
ent. Of these only one was from New- York, 
and the attendance from Virginia was not full. 
The members from New-York who did not attend 






192 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

were understood to prefer George Clinton, and the 
absentees from Virginia to be in favour of Mon- 
roe. In the decision of this caucus Clinton and 
his friends acquiesced in silence ; but the jealousy 
of the growing power of New-York, and particu- 
larly of the rising talents and influence of Dewitt 
Chnton, were powerfully excited in the breasts of 
those who desired to perpetuate the ascendancy of 
Virginia. 

This state of mind in the immediate personal 
adherents of the president became apparent to 
Dewitt Chnton when he, in pursuance of the act 
(' of the Legislature of 1811, visited Washington for 
the purpose of soliciting aid for the prosecution of 
the Mew-York canals. The doctrine that it was 
not within the delegated powers of the general 
government to grant such aid had not then been 
invented; the neglect of all measures preparatory 
to a war, or necessary for defence, had left the gov- 
ernment in possession of ample funds, and thus, to 
all appearance, there was nothing but sectional 
jealousy which could prevent such aid bemg fur- 
nished. 

During the succeeding session of Congress, ac- 
tive measures were taken for creating an army and 
making provision for defence, or even for acting 
hostilely against Great Britain. In these prepara- 
tory measures Clinton concurred, and they were 
supported in Congress by the votes of his imme- 



DEWITT CLINTON. 193 

diate friends and the exertion of all his influence. 
When, however, in June, 18 12, the final question 
of war or peace at that precise moment was enter- 
tained, he appears to have been of the opinion 
that, however just and necessary a war with Great 
Britain were, the juncture was unfavourable, and 
the country was not in a sufficient state of prepar- 
ation. In these views he was countenanced by a 
great number of the most uniform and consistent 
members of the party; a number so great, that, 
when added to the opposition members, it was be- 
lieved, by the most adroit politicians, that a dec- 
laration of war could hardly be carried in the 
House of Representatives, and must certainly fail 
in the Senate. The course of political manage- 
ment by which an apparent minority was sudden- 
ly and unexpectedly converted into a majority, is 
still unexplained. With this majority the immedi- 
ate friends of Clinton voted ; thus showing, what- 
ever hesitation he may have felt in respect to the 
policy of making war at the moment, a hesitation 
which many believe was shared by the president 
himself, that, when it was decided upon as the 
measure of the party, he was willing to give it his 
support. 

The nomination by a caucus of members of 
Congress had become odious to many. Hence, 
when Madison's first term was about to expire, no 
more than twelve persons from states east of New- 

R 



194 AMERfCAN BIOGRA*PHY. 

Jersey attended the meeting. From this caucus 
Madison received a nomination for a second term. 
Those repubhcans who objected to the usage of a 
caucus^ and refused to obey its commands, fixed 
their eyes upon Clinton as an opponent to the 
nominee of this meeting. Chnton was, in conse- 
quence, put in nomination ; and, when the electo- 
ral votes were counted, was found to have received 
89, while Madison was elected by 128 votes. 

In permitting himself to be used as a candidate, 
Clinton exposed himself to great obloquy. Two 
different parties were interested in misrepresenting 
his views and opinions. The supporters of Madi- 
son, on the one hand, were anxious that Clinton 
should be represented as an opponent of the war, 
believing that they would thus lessen his populari- 
ty and diminish the vote for him as president. 
The federal party, on the other hand, were willing 
to consider him as opposed to the war, as by this 
they might consistently vote for him, and obtain 
an opportunity for distracting the ranks of their 
ancient opponents. He was even strongly urged 
to declare himself upon this point ; and, had he 
given the least encouragement to a report that he 
was the opponent of the war, he might have secu- 
red the almost undivided support of the federal par- 
t}'. This would probably have secured his election, 
for that party was still strong and well organized- 
Into the latter plan Chnton declined to enter ; and 



DEWITT CLINTON. 195 

thus, if he may have received the vote of a few 
/ federalists, he derived no aid from them as a party, 
' except in the Eastern states, where he was chosen 
as the least of two evils. His decision on this 
point left a feeling of animosity in the minds of 
many distinguished opponents of the administra- 
tion, which arrayed them ever after with what- 
ever party sought the downfall of Clinton. 

The nomination of Clinton was made by a con- 
vention of the republican party of the State of 
New-York. Many persons who were afterward 
his most bitter opponents concurred in the call, and 
gave their support to his nomination. The electo- 
ral ticket which voted for him was headed by the 
gentleman who was subsequently the successful 
candidate of the party which opposed Clinton's 
administration as governor. 

This was the first attempt to put down the cau- 
cus system, which has been followed by the very 
method of conventions that was adopted by the 
friends of Clinton ; and although he for a time 
became the sacrifice of the new principle, it has, 
notwithstanding, been triumphant, and is now uni- 
versally admitted to be pre-eminently republican. 

The main cause assigned by the convention for 

\/ putting Clinton in nomination for the presidency 

was, that hostilities might be conducted in a more 

efficient manner. The early operations of the war 

were attended with discomfiture 9nd disgrace ; and 



196 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

it was most earnestly desired, by many sincere well- 
wishers of their country, that a man of Clinton's 
decision, capacity, and judgment should take the 
place of what they considered a feeble and vacil- 
lating administration. The truth is, however un- 
popular may be the declaration of it, that a war, 
commenced without preparation, was carried on 
without a plan ; and the force which, if united, 
might have penetrated to the walls of Quebec, was 
engaged in partial and inconclusive conflicts over 
a thousand miles of frontier. 

So far from attempting to embarrass the govern- 
ment in the prosecution of the war, Clinton was 
the first official personage who came out publicly 
to arouse his countrymen to that strenuous and 
unanimous support of the cause of their country 
by which alone the war could be brought to a 
happy issue. An opportunity was afforded him 
for this purpose in his charge to the grand jury of 
the City and County of New-York, before a month 
had elapsed from the date of the declaration of 
w^ar. In this charge, after pointing out the new 
relations in which the country had been placed, he 
explains to the grand jury its duty in inquiring 
into such acts as by these new relations had be- 
come crimes. 

It is therefore clear, that the charge of being 
opposed to a war with Great Britain, which has 
been so often urged against him, is devoid of 



DEWITT CLINTON. 197 

foundation. Even had he been one of its most 
strenuous opponents at the beginning, he would 
have stood in no worse Hght than others, who, how- 
ever violent they had been in their resistance to a 
declaration of war, were, notwithstanding, relieved 
from all imputations of want of patriotism, in con- 
sequence of the support which they afforded to the 

government in carrying it on. 

R2 



198 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Progress of the Canal Policy interrupted hy the 
War. — Clinton tenders his Military Services to 
Governor Tompkins. — His Report on the De- 
fence of the City of JYew-YorJe. — Measures of 
the Corporation, and of the State and General 
Governments, in consequence. — Clinton is re- 
moved from his Office of Mayor. — He renews 
the Consideration of the Canal Questioji. — 
Meeting on that Subject in JYew-York. — Clin- 
ton draws the Memorial of that Meeting. — Ex- 
amiiiation of the Contents, and Effects of that 
Memorial. 

The declaration of war put an end to all in!Wie- 
diate chance of proceeding with the construction 
of the New- York canals. The Legislature had 
indeed, on the 19th of June, 1812, almost at the 
instant that the war began, passed an act further 
to provide for the improvement of the internal 
navigation of this state. By this act the board of 
commissioners were authorized to purchase the in- 
terest of the Western Inland Lock Navigation 
Company, and to borrow five millions of dollars 
as a fund for making the canal. This act was 
obtained by the exertion on the part of Clinton 



DEWITT CLINTON, 199 

of the same powerful influence he had hitherto 
)3rought to bear in support of this great scheme. 
His whole soul had indeed become devoted to the 
object. It was, therefore, with no little regret 
that he saw any chance of its even being com- 
menced postponed indefinitely by the hostilities 
with Great Britain ; and the strenuous support 
which he afforded the government in all defensive 
measures, derives enhanced merit from this circum- 
stance. 

He had, in fact, when he visited Washington to 
solicit the aid of the general government to the ca- 
nal, pledged his support and that of his friends to 
the o-overnment in case of a war with Great Brit- 
ain ; and this pledge he redeemed. On his return 
he sought to regain his relative rank in the militia, 
with a view of being in the way of active service. 
His f^\vn view of his claims was limited to the 
rank of brigadier ; but the council of appointment, 
in consideration of his eminent standing in civil 
life, conferred on him the commission of major-gen- 
eral. As soon as it became necessary to call out 
the militia, he applied, through the intervention of 
Emmett, to Governor Tompkins for a command. 
He was compelled to make use of the channel of 
a mutual friend, as any familiar intercourse had 
ceased between him and the governor. Tompkins 
had been drawn from obscurity by the notice of 
Chnton, and owed to him his appointment as a 



200 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

judge, and his nomination as a candidate for gov- 
ernor in opposition to General Lewis. He was 
now opposed to Clinton on the presidential ques- 
tion, and gave the whole weight of his official in- 
fluence to Madison. Clinton, therefore, could not 
avoid considering him as ungrateful. On the oth- 
er hand, Tompkins affected to consider Clinton as 
an opponent of the war. It therefore did not suit 
him to bring Chnton forAvard in any active milita- 
ry employment, and the application for a command 
was rejected. 

Clinton, however, was determined to be useful 
to his country in the capacity w^hich he was still 
permitted to retain, that of mayor of the City of 
New-York. Feeling most sensibly the exposed 
position of this important place, he drew up and 
presented to the corporation a report on the meas- 
ures necessary for its defence, and strong represen- 
tations were in consequence made to the govern- 
ment. 

It appeared by this report that, so culpable had 
been the inattention of the administration, while 
that of England was sending out the army of Spain 
and Portugal to our coast, no more than 1600 men 
had been left for the defence of New- York. No 
other mode of attack had been anticipated than 
from shipping attempting to enter the Narrows. 
The state had made provision for fortifying the 
pass at Hellgate; but no preparation of any de-» 



DEW ITT CLINTON. 201 

scription had been made in case an army were to 
be landed on Long Island or in West Chester. 

The report, after pointing out the exposed po- 
sition of the city, proposed that fortified camps 
should be established at Brooklyn and Haerlem, 
and a sufficient body of militia called out to gar- 
rison them. 

To attain these purposes, eight resolutions were 
appended to the report. By the first, a committee 
of the Common Council was directed to solicit the 
attention of the president to these objects j by the 
second, the governor of the state was requested, 
under the authority of the militia law, to call out 
a sufficient number of the militia to occupy the 
proposed camps, and a loan of $300,000 tendered 
him for the purpose. The other resolutions had 
reference to munitions of war, and to the mode of 
raising the money tendered. 

The corporation at the time contained a major- 
ity of the opponents of the government, and polit- 
ical antagonists of Clinton. On this occasion, how- 
ever, all party feeling was forgotten, and absolute 
unanimity prevailed in its deliberations. The oc- 
casion was seized by the politic Tompkins as a 
mode of increasing his popularity. Up to this 
time he had been busily engaged in pressing of- 
fensive measures on the frontiers of Canada, with- 
out being aware that the enemy saw that the 
surest mode of defending their colony was by ag- 



202 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

gressive acts on the coast of the United States. 
He now did more than was asked of him, and 
poured into the City of New-York mihtia contin- 
gents to double the number that the committee 
of the corporation had thought necessary. Of 
this force he assumed the command, obtaining 
from the general government its sanction. Clin- 
ton, in the mean time — the real projector of the 
measure, by which all risk of attack was avoided, 
and which preserved the city from the fate of 
Washington and Alexandria, or the panic experi- 
enced at Baltimore — was studiously kept in the 
background. The funds necessary for the pay 
and support of this imposing force far exceeded 
the amount furnished by the corporation. A se- 
vere trial of its patriotism was therefore to be 
made. The general government, which had sanc- 
tioned the call of such a force, had provided no 
means for the purpose of keeping it together. Its 
credit, from mismanagement of its vast resources, 
had fallen to so low an ebb, that its treasury notes 
were almost worthless in the market. To call the ■ 
state legislature together would have been a tedious ^ 
process, during which the troops would have been 
exposed to distress, or must have been disbanded, i 
An opportunity was thus presented by which an • 
adroit politician, without the semblance of improp- 
er motives, might have left the governor to his own 
resources, and thrown upon him the responsibility 



DEWITT CLINTON. 203 

of collecting, for his own purposes, a force he was 
unable to pay or feed. Such, however, was not 
the course of the mayor and corporation of New- 
York. With the utmost readiness, and without 
a dissenting voice, that body, in pursuance of a 
report presented by Clinton, interposed its un- 
impeached credit in behalf of the government; 
and, procuring from the banks a loan, placed 
$1,400,000 at the disposal of the governor. 

In these patriotic exertions Clinton derived the 
most steady and efficient support from members of 
the corporation. Among t]\ese are particularly to 
be remembered Aldermen Fish, Mapes, and Law- 
rence. The first an old soldier of the Revolution, 
and the brother in arms of Hamilton ; the second, 
who, although a tradesman, exhibited in the dis- 
cipline of a militia brigade, of which he was the 
commander, and which was called into the service, 
a high degree of military talent ; the third a bank- 
er, who, by his judicious administration of the 
finances of the city, had raised its credit from a 
low ebb, until it was far superior to that of either 
the general or state governments. 

In the negotiations which attended this loan, an 
incident occurred which may be here cited as ex- 
hibiting the character of the man who speedily 
became the opponent and persecutor of Clinton, 
who had raised him from obscurity. The corpora- 
tion had stipulated that it should receive United 



204 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

States' treasury notes as vouchers for the loan thus 
made to the general government. The comptroll- 
er, Mr. Mercein, waited on the governor, by ap-- 
pointment, with one of the instalments. The notes 
were exhibited to him, wanting only the signature 
of Tompkins, who stated that a wish to be present 
at the approaching confinement of his lady com- 
pelled him to set off that afternoon for Albany, 
and that he would take it as a favour if the exe- 
cution of these notes were postponed until his re- 
turn. The comptroller, without hesitation, com- 
plied with the request ; and there is no doubt that 
the governor did at the time intend to fulfil his 
promise. But, in the interval, other pressing de- 
mands arose, and the treasury notes were applied 
to other purposes. It now became a question of 
personal veracity between the governor and the 
comptroller ; the former denying that he had 
given the promise, the latter asserting it. The 
general government, in the end, made good the 
amount, and the comptroller was relieved from his 
responsibility, so that the pecuniary part of the dis- 
pute was adjusted. In the denial, however, Tomp- 
kins had forgotten, what the comptroller was not 
aware of, that a witness was present at the confer- 
ence, who can, even at this late period, bear his 
testimony to the correctness of the statement of 
the latter. A young officer, charged with exhib- 
iting to the governor the report on the fortifica- 



DEWITT CLINTON. 205 

tions at Haerlem and Brooklyn, was in the room 
when the comptroller was announced, and was 
requested by the governor to take a seat, and wait 
until the business with the comptroller was trans- 
acted. The transaction, according to his recollec- 
tion, was in all respects conformable to the state- 
ment of Mr. Mercein. It would therefore appear 
that the governor, when he applied the treasury 
notes to other purposes, and found he could not re- 
place them, preferred the sacrifice of a political 
opponent to a controversy with the administration, 
into which he must have entered had he maintain- 
ed, as he ought, the claims of the City of New- 
York. 

The same weakness was the cause of a subse- 
quent dispute in accounts between Tompkins and 
the comptroller of the State of New-York, in 
which the difference amounted to a very large 
sum. No one now believes that he was actually 
a defaulter, or had applied money to his own pur- 
poses ; but he yielded to the necessities of the 
general government, and appropriated to its ser- 
vice moneys intrusted by the State of New-York ; 
and the state, with a true sense of its dignity, for- 
gave him the debt, although he had not taken the 
proper steps for enabling it to be recovered from 
the administration at Washington. 

On another occasion, the influence of Clinton 
with the body over whose deliberations he presi- 

S 



206 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

ded was materially of use to the general govern- 
ment. A steam 'ship-of-war was building under 
the direction of Fulton, and the government was 
unable to supply the funds for continuing the work. 
An application was in consequence made to the 
corporation of New-York for aid ; but the finance 
committee, looking into it only as a matter of busi- 
ness, had determined to report against a grant, be- 
cause it would unnecessarily involve the city in 
debt. In this emergency Clinton interposed, and 
was successful in convincing the committee that 
the loan ought to be made. 

We thus see that Clinton was in favour of a 
war with Great Britain ; that no sooner was war 
declared than he gave the government his undi- 
vided support ; that he was foremost in the meas- 
ures of defence by which the City of New-York 
was rendered inaccessible to the marauding bands 
of Ross and Cockburn ; and that he was the first 
mover in the measures by which the necessary 
funds were raised for the purpose. If, in the ac- 
tion of the corporation on the first two points, he 
was aided by his ancient opponents in that body, 
he was not less assisted in the financial part of the 
operation by many who had not yet abandoned 
the name and the party distinctions of federalists. 
Rufus ICing addressed a large assemblage of citi- 
zens at the Tontine Coffee House in aid of the 
contemplated loan ; and a great number of citi- 



DEWTTT CLINTON. 207 

zens of the federal party enrolled themselves as 
volunteers. 

On this occasion the old party lines were com- 
pletely obliterated ; no trace of affection for Great 
Britain remained in any mind, and the very name 
of federalist only exists to be used as a mode of 
discrediting a political adversary in the minds of 
the ignorant. The only wonder is, that, in a com- 
munity where the means of education are so easily 
accessible to all, its good sense should not revolt 
at the employment of terms, the meaning of which 
has long been obliterated. 

Governor Tompkins reaped the full fruit of his 
ingenious policy. Thirty thousand militia, inclu- 
ding the flower of the youth of the state, and 
many of the most promising of the party opposed 
to the administration, were soon dispersed to carry 
throughout the state the tidings of the affability, 
the kindness, the devoted patriotism, and, as many 
faithfully believed, the great military talent of the 
governor ; while the citizens of New-York hailed 
him as their champion and saviour. He was thus 
clothed with sufficient power to use it to the injury 
of Clinton, who was removed from his office of 
mayor in 1815. It was attempted to justify his re- 
moval on the grounds of his being originally an op- 
ponent of the war, and of being wanting in patri- 
otism to support it. How futile such charges were, 
the facts we have cited will show. Nor were they 
believed by the community, as will speedily appear. 



208 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

To show how completely all party lines had 
been obliterated by the war, and that opposition 
to the measures which led to it was not felt, how- 
ever strongly it might be proclaimed as a disqual- 
ification, the successor of Clinton in the office of 
mayor, in 1815, was his federal opponent, Jacob 
Radcliff, who, on the temporary ascendency of his 
party in 1810, had already superseded Clinton in 
the same office. 

In the mean time, the canal question slumber- 
ed. The commissioners, indeed, made a report 
in March, 1814, in which the plan of an incli- 
ned plane was in express terms abandoned ; but, 
within the next month, the authority granted to 
them to contract for a loan was annulled by a 
clause in the supply bill, where it had been pla- 
ced, as being there unlikely to attract attention or 
excite debate. 

At the close of the war. Governor Tompkins 
had it in his power to renew, by an official sug- 
gestion, the attention of the public to the canal 
policy. No man could have exposed the necessi- 
ty and importance of a system of internal commu- 
nication in more exact accordance with his own 
particular views than he. These views were all 
warlike, and directed to preparation for renewed 
hostilities with Great Britain. He had seen can- 
non dragged by land from Washington to Sack- 
ett's Harbour, to arm the fleet which disputed the 



DEWITT CLINTON. 209 

command of Lake Ontario, and an enormous ex- 
pense incurred in other ways for want of easy 
communications. This glorious opportunity of 
calKng the attention of the pubhc to canals, as the 
most efficient means of security against attack, or 
of collecting forces and material for offensive 
operations, was lost by him. He had it in his 
power to make himself the leader of that incon- 
trollable spirit which speedily manifested itself, but 
he neglected it. 

In the mean time, Clinton, removed from all 
official station, and abandoned by all political as- 
sociates except a few personal friends, saw that 
the moment had arrived for renewing his exertions 
on behalf of the cause of canals. His means of 
success were immeasurably diminished from the 
time in which he led, in the councils of the state, 
the solid and disciplined party to whose command 
Tompkins had now succeeded, and could count on 
the patriotic concurrence of such men as Piatt, Van 
Rensselaer, and Morris, the leaders of his oppo- 
nents in all other measures. The diminution of 
his own immediate political resources did not dis- 
may him. He trusted to the good sense and the 
sound patriotism of his fellow-citizens, satisfied 
that, could he obtain an impartial hearing, the 
cause of internal improvement must triumph. He 
therefore, in the autumn of 1815, called to his 
aid Piatt, thus repajdng the confidence which that 

S2 



210 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

gentleman had, on the former occasion, reposed in 
him, and with him that of WiUiam Bayard, who 
then stood at the head of the mercantile commu- 
nity in the city, of Thomas Eddy, his old associate 
in the canal commission, of John Swartwout, who 
forgot on this occasion their old strife even to 
blood, of Cadwallader D. Golden, and of several 
other influential and distinguished citizens. In 
conformity with a pubhc call, a meeting was con- 
vened at the City Hotel, w^hich, by the exertions of 
his coadjutors, was numerously attended. Before 
this meeting, a draught of a memorial, prepared 
by Clinton, was laid and unanimously adopted. 

This memorial was then circulated throughout 
the state for signatures, and was everywhere re- 
ceived with enthusiasm and subscribed with avid- 
ity. 

There have, in the course of American history, 
been a few instances in which a single able state 
paper, appealing to the patriotism and good sense 
of the people in opposition to the cry of party or 
the force of prejudice, has changed the whole 
course of public sentiment, or created a new im- 
pulse by which that sentiment w^as directed into 
channels before unexplored. Among such in- 
stances we may cite the proclamation of neutrali- 
ty by Washington, and that in opposition to the 
doctrine of nullification by Jackson. The memo- 
rial in relation to the canals had a similar influ- 



DEW ITT CLINTON. 211 

ence within a less extended sphere. It exhibited 
the practicability of the canal to Lake Erie in so 
clear a light, and demonstrated its advantages 
over the route by Lake Ontario so evidently, that 
the first was never again questioned even for po- 
litical effect, and the last sunk into oblivion. It 
showed that the canal was not only practicable, 
but that the benefits it would confer on the state 
were such that it would be an advisable measui^e 
even were it to return no revenue. It entered at 
full length into an estimate of the cost of the ca- 
nal, and demonstrated that the resources of the 
state were adequate to its construction even in 
default of any large income from tolls. Finally, 
with feelings of extended patriotism, it proceeded 
from the local benefits to be conferred on the State 
of New- York, to the influence of such a work 
upon the general prosperity of the nation, and its 
effect in dra\ving more closely the bonds of union 
among the states. The argument of this report 
was so convincing, its appeal to feelings of indi- 
vidual interest, of state pride, and national glory 
so irresistible, that for the moment all opposition to 
the scheme was silenced. 

Had Clinton performed no- other act in relation 
to the canal system than to compile the informa- 
tion collected in this memorial, digest its argu- 
ment, and recommend it to public attention by 
the weight of his name and of his political and 



212 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

personal influence, he would have been entitled to 
stand first in the list of the promoters of this vast 
and useful enterprise. But when we consider 
that, in addition to the long and devoted atten- 
tion which was necessary to prepare this report, 
the broad and statesman-like views which it ex- 
hibited, and the great authority of his name in 
procuring its consideration and extensive adop- 
tion, he from this time made the furtherance of 
the canal policy the prominent mark of his noble 
ambition, the services of all other persons, how- 
ever eminent, sink into insignificance. No other 
person ventured on the support of this policy 
the adherence of his friends, his well-earned rep- 
utation as a statesman, his character for prudence 
and foresight, and, finally, all his prospects of fu- 
ture elevation in political life ; all these, and they 
were a mighty stake, Clinton committed to the 
hazard of the success or failure of the canal poli- 
cy. The fears of his timid friends he allayed; 
the remonstrances of those who saw a surer way 
for him to regain his political influence he disre- 
garded, even at the cost of seeing them join the 
ranks of his enemies; he was too well satisfied of 
the accuracy of his calculations to dread the judg- 
ment of posterity upon his prediction; and he 
willingly placed all his future hopes of rank and 
distinction upon the accomplishment of this single 
measure. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 213 



CHAPTER XVL 

Memorial is presented to the Legislature. — Final 
Report of the Old Board of Commissioners. — 
Law to provide for the Improvement of the In- 
ternal JYavigation of the State. — The JVeiu 
Board of Commissioners enter upon their dur- 
ties. — Their Report. — Vast amount of field- 
work pe formed under their direction. — Scheme 
of Finance. — Law of Congress for promoting 
Internal Improvements. — Its Rejection hy Pres- 
ident Madison as unconstitutional . — Modifica- 
tions rendered necessary in the Scheme of Fi- 
nance. — The Bill to authorize the construction 
of the Canal becomes a Law. — Opposition of the 
City Delegation. — The Canal Policy made hy 
them a party question. 

The memorial of which we have spoken in the 
last chapter was signed by a great number of per- 
sons in the city of New-York ; it was enforced by 
a recommendation from the corporation of that 
city, and seconded by the action of pubhc meet- 
ings in Albany, and nearly all the towns and vil- 
lages to the west and north of that place. It 
was presented to the Legislature about the same 
time with the final report of the old board of com- 



2 14 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

missioners. This report refers to the number and 
respectabiUty of the appHcations before the Le- 
gislature in favour of an immediate prosecution of 
the canal, as an evidence that its advantages were 
appreciated by the citizens of the state. The re- 
port, in addition, recommends the construction of 
the Champlain Canal, and urges the superiority of 
the Erie over the Ontario route. The original 
draught, as in former cases, had been made by 
Morris; but, in consequence of alterations made 
in it by the other commissioners, he declined to 
sign it. 

The time had passed when eloquent declama- 
tion could be received as a substitute for sound 
practical views. The community had been ex- 
cited to the examination of the project upon its 
real merits by the brilliant effusions of Morris, 
but had, on consideration, seen that they pointed 
out schemes which were impracticable. To this 
expressed will of the people the commissioners 
found themselves compelled to conform ; and, in 
spite of the respect they entertained for the char- 
acter of that distinguished man, they, with abso- 
lute unanimity, concurred in the amendments and 
alterations. 

Clinton, after the presentation of the memorial, 
proceeded to Albany to enforce, by his personal 
and political mfluence, its favourable reception, 
and to urge its being acted upon Although 



DEWITT CLINTON. 215 

many friends of the measure were desirous of ob- 
taining authority to commence the work, no more 
was gained from the Legislature than the means 
of proceeding with the inquiry, in such manner 
that the surveys, which had hitherto been confined 
to mere exploration, should be directed to the ac- 
tual location, and the rude calculations made from 
partial researches extended into close and accu- 
rate estimates of the probable cost. Clinton and 
the other memorialists prudently abstained from 
jeoparding their cause, by insisting upon any com- 
mittal on the part of the state, until such estimates 
could be submitted, or any appropriation beyond 
the cost of survey, until a scheme of finance had 
been prepared adequate to the magnitude of the 
operation. 

In compliance with the prayer of the memorial, 
an act was passed on the 17th April, 1816, "to 
provide for the improvement of the internal nav- 
igation of the state." In this act Stephen Van 
Rensselaer, Dewitt Clinton, Samuel Young, My- 
ron Holley, and Joseph Elliott, were named com- 
missioners. Their prescribed duties were to con- 
sider and devise such measures as might be neces- 
sary to connect Hudson River with Lake Cham- 
plain and Lake Erie ; they were required to re- 
port within twenty days after the commencement 
of the next annual session of the Legislature j and 



216 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY, 

$20,000 were appropriated for the expenses of 
the inquiry. 

No time was lost by the commissioners in enter- 
ing upon their duties, and sufficient corps of engi- 
neers were forthwith organized. Three of the 
commissioners assumed active duties in the field, 
and, dividing the work into the same number of 
parts, pressed the performance of the surveys in 
person. These gentlemen, thus devoting their 
whole time to the work, were entitled to, and re- 
ceived a compensation for their services. Clinton 
and Van Rensselaer, who performed at least equal 
services in another manner, would accept of no 
remuneration. 

Clinton devoted much attention, during the re- 
cess of the Legislature, to the consideration of a 
scheme of finance. The first point to be ascer- 
tained was the possibility of borrowing a sufficient 
amount, provided satisfactory security could be ex- 
hibited. For this purpose he placed himself in 
communication with the most intelligent merchants 
of the City of New-York ; and, as the intercourse 
with Europe was reopened, he had an opportunity, 
which he sedulously improved, of consulting the 
travellers who had repaired to England on the ces- 
sation of hostilities, and were from time to time re- 
turning. All accounts seemed to encourage the 
hope that no difficulty would be experienced in 
raising sufficient funds. A more important obsta- 



DEWITT CLINTON. 217 

cle was therefore to be overcome, that of devising 
a system of finance. The Legislature had indeed, 
on a former occasion, clothed the old board of 
commissioners with power to borrow five millions 
of dollars on the simple pledge of the faith of 
the state. Clinton, whatever may have been his 
opinion on a former occasion, was now satisfied of 
the cardinal principle, that no debt ought in any 
event to be contracted by a government, unless a 
fund were at the same time provided for paying 
its interest and for its final redemption. The in- 
come of the canal itself might, indeed, be calcula- 
ted upon for a part, if not the whole, of the latter 
object ; but he felt convinced, that even if the ab- 
solute maintenance of the public faith did not re- 
quire an income to be provided from other sources, 
yet the rate of interest at which a loan could be 
procured would be much lessened by exhibiting 
to the lender a pledge of resources which would 
render his remuneration sure, even were the proj- 
ect on which the capital should be expended to 

fail. 

The commonplace-book of Clinton abounds 
with extracts made by him at this period from 
the best authors on the principles of finance and 
the management of a public debt, and manifests 
how attentively he studied this subject, and what 
labour he devoted to master the details. 

The great success of the New-York canals has 

T 



218" AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

stimulated almost every other state of the Union to 
similar enterprises. Many of these have been 
judiciously planned and successfully prosecuted. 
They have furnished in such cases revenues which 
have at least paid the interest on their cost. There 
are, again, other instances, in which the plan has 
been so far judicious, that new wealth has been cre- 
ated more than equal to the expenditure on the im- 
provement, but where the income has barely defray- 
ed the cost of maintaining the work. The ease 
with which New-York has paid its interest, and the 
rapidity with which the sinking-fund has accumu- 
lated to the full amount of the original debt, has 
raised the credit of the nation in foreign marts, and 
has afforded to other states facilities for loans which 
even New-York did not at first enjoy. The mere 
pledge of the public faith has, in consequence, been 
of late found sufficient to obtain a loan. It has 
thus happened, that, in almost all recent instances, 
the wise precaution taken by the State of New- 
York has been neglected. Public w^orks have been 
commenced to an extent w^holly unauthorized by 
the business and population of the states to which 
they belong ; no other funds than the prospective 
income of the finished work have been thought of; 
and, in almost all cases, the borrower, instead of 
endeavouring to ensure the redemption of the debt 
by a fund accumulating at compound interest, has 
trusted to new loans to meet the interest itself, and 



"DEWITT CLINTON. 219 

tlius allowed the debt to accumulate in the same 
•rapid manner. Such is the consequence of this 
method of accumulation, that if, on the one hand, 
the smallest excess of fund over and above the in- 
terest must in the end extinguish the debt, on the 
other the debt will increase so fast, that the most 
brilliant final success will hardly be sufficient to re- 
duce it when thus compounded. 

The system of borrowing without an intermedi- 
ate provision for the interest is besides objection- 
able, inasmuch as the rate of interest will be con- 
tinually rising upon the borrower, until it may 
happen that the funds for the completion of the 
works of improvement cannot be obtained, and 
thus the anticipated revenue may never be real- 
ized. 

It is by a neglect of this cardinal principle that 
the new states of the Union are at this moment 
suffering under the evils of a total prostration of 
credit, and public works, undertaken and carried 
on at a vast expense, are lying unfinished, and, con- 
sequently, unproductive. 

The question whether a public debt is to have 
its interest and final redemption provided for at the 
moment it is contracted, or whether it is to be 
sanctioned by a simple pledge of the public faith, 
has been among the distinctive characters of the 
two great schools of politicians which have divi- 
ded our country from the time it became independ- 



220 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

ent. At the head of one school stands Hamilton, 
and at that of the other Jefferson. In the practi- 
cal action of the general government, no injury has 
arisen from the predominance of the opinions of 
the latter. The great debt contracted during the 
war of 1812 has been redeemed by the proceeds 
of the national domain, and the people, as a body, 
have not felt it as a burden. But the states stand 
in a very different position; they have, as a general 
rule, no landed estate to resort to for the payment of 
their loans; and any great debt contracted by them, 
beyond the hmit which can be sustained by an ex- 
isting revenue, must be followed by breach of faith, 
or even by absolute bankruptcy. It is highly to 
the credit of Clinton, that, educated in the school 
of Jefferson, and holding all its tenets, he was en- 
abled to free himself from its shackles in this point 
of policy. 

The canal commissioners reported in due season 
to the Legislature. It appeared that 440 miles of 
canal had been traced upon the ground, and the 
cost of construction estimated. This was found to 
be nearly six millions of dollars ; and it is one of 
the peculiar features of the history of the canal, 
that, in spite of the amount of work in survey and 
calculation being greater than had ever before 
been performed in so short a space of time and at 
so small a cost, the actual construction has differed 
less from the estimate than in almost any similar 



DEWITT CLINTON. 221 

instance. The commissioners, in order to ensure 
this, had laid it down as a principle, that every 
probable expense should be included in the esti- 
mate, and every possible contingency provided 
for. Such, however, was the distrust, arising 
from experience of the inaccuracy of estimates, 
that many of the best friends of the measure feared 
that the anticipations of the commissioners were 
too sanguine, while those opposed to it maintained 
that the estimates were made up with a view to 
deceive, in order to embark the state in a project 
which, if once begun, must be completed, whatever 
might be the cost. 

When the report had been presented and refer- 
red, the committee to whose charge it was intrust- 
ed asked from the commissioners the draught of 
a law providing for the construction of the canal 
and creating a system of finance. This draught 
was made by Clinton. The scheme of finance 
created a canal fund, vested in a board, and pledg- 
ed the faith of the state that it should not be di- 
verted. No pledge was originally given in the 
draught of the credit of the state, to provide for 
either principal or interest, beyond the fund point- 
ed out and made sacred. The question of finance 
appeared to have been much simplified, at the mo- 
ment the report was presented, by an act which 
had just passed both Houses of Congress. By 
this act, the income of the stock held by the gov- 

T2 



222 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

ernment in the Bank of the United States was 
directed to be distributed among the several states 
for the purpose of internal improvements. Under 
it the State of New-York would have received 
$90,000 per annum, which would have been 
equivalent to the interest on a loan sufficient to 
meet the estimated cost of one fourth of the canal. 
Upon this liberal measure, which would have dif- 
fused wealth and happiness throughout the Union, 
Mr. Madison set his veto in the very last moment 
of his administration. The cause assigned for this 
measure was, that the law was unconstitutional ; 
yet he at the same moment approved a law making 
a large appropriation for the Cumberland road, 
and another making a grant to a road in Tennes- 
see. The nice casuistry by which it has been de- 
cided that certain public improvements fall within 
the granted powers of the general government, 
while others do not, is beyond the comprehension 
of those who are not accustomed to thread the 
mazes of metaphysical investigation ; while the 
dictates of plain common sense would seem to es- 
tablish the conclusion, that the framers of the Con- 
stitution could never have intended to exclude the 
power of granting the surplus funds of the general 
government, in a fair ratio of distribution, among 
the individual states. The truth is, that the prob- 
ability that the Union could ever have a surplus of 
income over expenditures seems never to have oc- 



DEWITT CLINTON. 223 

curred to the framers of the Constitution, nor was 
there any precedent in modern times whence such 
an anticipation could have been drawn. 

Those have not been wanting who have ascribed 
this act of Mr. Madison to a desire to prevent the 
construction of the New- York canal. If the ad- 
mitted patriotism of that distinguished citizen be 
urged as evidence that such could not have been 
the case, still the assertion that such were his mo- 
tives has been maintained by most plausible ar- 
guments. Chnton was at the moment, by his 
strenuous exertions in the cause of internal im- 
provements, acquiring a popularity, which one 
whom he had presumed to rival in the affections, 
not only of the country at large, but of the demo- 
cratic party itself, might well have desired to low- 
er. The State of New-York was to derive the 
most direct apparent benefit from the grant ; and a 
Virginian might well have desired to check that 
prosperity which was soon to place New-York in 
the highest rank for population and wealth, and 
which has, in the end, substituted the " Empire 
State" for the " Old Dominion" in its standing in 
the Union. Personal rivalry, political hostility, and 
local prejudice, may then have reasonably been ex- 
pected to exist in the mind of Madison, if it had 
been capable of entertaining such feelings. 

The loss of so large an anticipated source of in- 
come rendered it necessary to amend the project 



224 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

of finance submitted by Clinton, after it had been 
reported to the House of Assembly. Mr. Tibbitts, 
then a member of the Senate, claims that the 
whole of the important changes which were made 
in the bill, grew out of his suggestions. 

Clinton, in a history of the proceedings, pub- 
lished under the signature of Tacitus, ascribes great 
improvements in his original draught to the " use- 
ful suggestions of Messrs. Van Rensselaer (J. Rut- 
sen), Tibbitts, and Few." One of the features in- 
troduced into the bill was unquestionably contrary 
to the wishes of Chnton. A large duty was levied 
by the authority of the state upon sales at auction 
in the City of New-York. This had at first been 
applied to local purposes within that city; one 
half had then been withdrawn for the general 
purposes of the state, and the bill, as passed, de- 
prived the city of the other half, and threw the 
whole into the canal lund. To this CHnton was 
opposed. He would have preferred to see the ex- 
ecution of his darling project delayed rather than 
give his sanction to an act of injustice. The auc- 
tion duty has been represented, and thus its diver- 
sion into the general funds of the state justified, 
as a tax upon the consumer, when all who have 
watched its operation know that it falls almost 
wholly on the importers of the City of New-York, 
who voluntarily submit to it as the price of a more 
speedy and safe return for their capital. 



DEW ITT CLINTON. 225 

On the other hand, a feature which contributed 
mainly to the passage of the bill, and which was 
just in itself, was introduced by William A. Duer. 
He was a representative from one of the counties 
which could not, in any event, be benefited, and 
might possibly be injured by the construction of 
the canal; and his constituents were, in conse- 
quence, opposed to it, particularly if it would 
have subjected them to any risk of taxation for 
its support. In order to conciliate this opposition, 
he added a clause to the bill, by which the lands 
for twenty-five miles on each side of the canal 
were made liable to taxation. This went far to 
satisfy those parts of the state which derived no 
immediate advantage from the construction of the 
canal, and was not objected to by its friends. Cir- 
cumstances have rendered it unnecessary, but the 
strict justice of the measure, and its expediency at 
the moment, no one can doubt. 

In the Senate, Mr. Van Buren, the present Pres- 
ident of the United States, who had in the prece- 
ding session opposed any measures beyond those of 
inquiry, and had, in consequence, been considered 
as hostile to the canal, came out as its supporter ; 
and, not content with supporting the bill as it came 
from the Assembly, proposed the addition of a 
clause pledging the general credit of the state in 
addition to the funds set apart as sacred for the re- 
demption of the canal debt. This addition, if ad- 



226 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

mitted to have aided in obtaining the necessary 
funds, has not been salutary either to the State of 
New- York, or as an example to other states. The 
revenue of the canal fund, and the income of the 
canal, if kept separate upon the books of account 
from the general finances of the state, have, in 
point of fact, been mixed with them into one com- 
mon mass. The state, apparently possessed of am- 
ple funds, has abandoned taxation as a source of 
revenue for its annual expenses, and is thus largely 
in debt to the canal fund ; while the enlargement 
of the canal itself, and the extension of the benefits 
of internal improvement to other regions of the 
state, has been retarded, if not prevented alto- 
gether. 

That the canal shall, by its operation, have 
done away the necessity of continuing to resort to 
an annual tax, is, however, one of its most popular 
features. 

After a long and severe contest, the bill at last 
passed both houses of the Legislature. This re- 
sult may be ascribed almost wholly to the exer- 
tions of Clinton, who, going before a legislature, 
a majority of which was either actually opposed 
or wholly indifferent on the subject, brought pub- 
lic opinion to bear upon its members with such 
force, that opponents were converted or silenced, 
and the indifferent convinced. 

Even after the battle had been fought in the 



DEWITT CLINTON. 227 

Legislature, a difficulty remained to be overcome 
in obtaining its passage through the council of 
revision. This was achieved by the vote of Chan- 
cellor Kent, who had doubts for a time as to the 
feasibility of the project ; but, according to his own 
statement, was brought to give a casting vote in 
its favour by the very arguments which Governor 
Tompkins urged against it. 

Among the steady and determined opponents 
of the canal bill, in every stage, were the delega- 
tion in Assembly of the City of New-York, and the 
senators of the Southern District. The former 
had been elected in the place of a delegation 
which was friendly to the canal, and in declared 
opposition to the name and the policy of Clinton. 
Hostility to him prevailed over all considerations 
of public benefit ; and this being made the ground 
of their vote on the canal question, converted the 
decision of the Legislature into a personal tri- 
umph. 

It thus happened, as in more than one other in- 
stance, that the measures adopted by the political 
opponents of Clinton only brought out in more dis- 
tinct relief the importance of his agency in pre- 
paring the way for that decided expression of pub- 
lic opinion by which the construction of the canal 
was in a manner forced upon cold friends or de- 
cided enemies. By making the canal policy of 
the state a party question, they compelled Clinton 



228 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

to do the same, and the attainment of the end for 
which he strove became to him a pohtical victory. 
It is thus, by the necessity under which he was 
placed of bringing the whole weight of his influ- 
ence to bear upon the canal question, and the 
firm and unflinching manner in which he ventured 
his whole political fortune on its result, that his 
name has become inseparable from the history of 
the canal policy of the state. All other persons, 
however useful they may have been in promoting 
the desired result, made the canal no more than a 
secondary consideration in their respective projects 
of ambition. Its success or failure would neither 
have elevated nor depressed them in the public 
view, while with Clinton it was the primary object 
of his aspirations ; and its success so far exalted 
him in the eye of the people, that his political op- 
ponents were finally compelled to enter with ap- 
parent ardour into the support of the canal policy 
for the purpose of defeating him. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 229 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Clinton is elected Governor of the State of KeW" 
York. — Apparent Calm in Party Feelings. — 
Causes of renewed Party Violence. — Tompkins 
is held icp as a Candidate in opposition to him, 
Clinton^ s Re-election. — Farther increase of Par- 
ty Violence. — Interference of the General Gov- 
ernment. — Personal Hostility added to Feelings 
of Party. — Important Measures recommended 
by Clinton and carried in the Legislature. — 
Character of his Speeches to the Legislature. 

Clinton, who was brought, by his attendance 
on the Legislature, in contact with a new race of 
pohtical men, with a Legislature composed of 
persons to many of whom he had hitherto been a 
stranger, received an accession to his popularity 
which was speedily manifested in an unexpected 
manner. Madison's second term as president was 
about to expire, and Monroe had been elected his 
successor. Tompkins, who had been re-elected 
governor of the state in 1816, was chosen vice- 
president. Many persons appeared to have been 
under the impression that the vacancy left by his 
acceptance of the office must necessarily be sup- 
plied during the remaining part of the term for 

L 



230 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

which he had been elected, by the Heutenant-gov- 
ernor. There was then no space left for political 
agitation, or the attempt to bias the opinion of the 
people by self-constituted leaders. When it was 
ascertained that the Constitution required the elec- 
tion of a new governor for the remainder of the 
terra for which Tompkins had been chosen, a 
universal expression of opinion in favour of Clin- 
ton's nomination broke forth. His old democratic 
friends in the country joined in the general wish ; 
the federal party, so long his opponents, had ceas- 
ed to exist as an organized faction, and its leaders 
admitted that they could not recall it from its dis- 
banded state to act either in his favour or against 
him. The partisans who occupied Tammany Hall, 
and directed the movements of the democratic par- 
ty in the city, retained the animosity v;hich had 
been engendered by his faithful exertions to main- 
tain the public peace endangered at the breaking 
out of the war. A feeble attempt at opposition 
was made by this party, and Peter B. Porter was 
brought forward as a candidate in opposition to 
Clinton. The struggle, however, was almost nom- 
inal, and the election of Clinton was achieved with 
a unanimity unparalleled, except in the case of 
his uncle, before party divisions had arisen, and 
while the state was partially overrun by an enemy. 
The spring of 1817 was therefore a period of 
triumph in the life of Chnton. He had achieved 



DEWITT CLINTON. 231 

the passage of a bill which ensured the construction 
of the canal, a result which had for so many years 
been the first object of his wishes ; he had receiv- 
ed the almost unanimous expression of the grati- 
tude of his fellow-citizens for his long and faithful 
services, under circumstances which showed that 
he was not merely the idol of a party ; in addi- 
tion, the successful termination of an important 
lawsuit had relieved him from a state approaching 
to pecuniary embarrassment. Every trace of po- 
litical division seemed to have been obliterated; 
and those unacquainted with the occult springs 
which influence the actions of politicians thought 
they saw in his inauguration as governor the be- 
ginning of a political millennium, in which the 
angry passions and fierce contests that had been 
engaged in the long struggle between the federal 
and democratic parties were to cease their de- 
structive action. Clinton himself, with all his ex- 
perience, was not free from the delusion, and pro- 
nounced that in politics " all w^as calm." The 
calm, however, w^as deceitful, and the precursor of 
a strife more imbittered than any which the annals 
of the politics of the state have recorded. 

So completely had the old party distinctions 
been obliterated, that the Legislature of 1818, 
calling itself republican, chose as senator of the 
United States Rufus King, who had been the can- 
didate opposed to Tompkins in 1816, and w^as, 



232 AMERICAN BIOGRAP H Y. 

perhaps, more than any other person, obnoxious to 
the old democratic party. In this choice, Clinton, 
who had been so long opposed to him, and who, al- 
though repudiated by the supporters of Tompkins, 
had refused to sustain King when held up as can- 
didate for the office of governor, cordially united. 

The opposition to Clinton in the city of New- 
York was, however, unabated, and was speedily re- 
enforced by the whole weight of the executive in- 
fluence of the general government. Some attempts 
had been made by mutual friends to bring about a 
good understanding between President Monroe 
and the governor of New- York, but they were so 
injudiciously managed as to lead more speedily to 
an open breach. Without the necessity of believ- 
ing the charges, which the opposition have so fre- 
quently made, of direct corruption on the part of 
the general government in the elections of the 
city, it possesses evidently a great and powerful in- 
fluence upon the most active politicians by the num- 
ber and value of its custom-house appointments. 
The whole of this corps was forthwith banded 
with the opponents of Clinton's administration. 

Clinton, in his struggle with the federal party, 
had not been sparing in his denunciations and in- 
vectives, nor measured in the tone of his speeches 
and writings. He had also committed the less 
pardonable offence of holding aloof when it was 
. expected that he would have joined them. The 



DEWITT CLINTON. 233 

wounds thus inflicted were but partially healed 
and easily reopened. From causes which at this 
distant date can hardly be appreciated, fifty-one 
gentlemen, comprising a most formidable array of 
talent and activity, joined in a declaration by which 
they withdrew themselves from the federal party, 
and united with the opponents of Clinton. Many 
of these gentlemen, although opposed to the war 
in its early stages, had been actively and gallant- 
ly engaged in the defence of the country when 
threatened by invasion; and the leaders of the 
democratic party in the city were willing to accept 
of this service, with the promise of their aid in the 
overthrow of Clinton, sa a compensation for their 
ancient opposition. 

Clinton, by the very excess of his triumph, had 
become possessed of the whole appointing power. 
The first council of appointment under his admin- 
istration was composed wholly of his friends, and 
thus, for almost the only session during the exist- 
ence of that body, the whole load of responsibility 
appeared to rest upon the governor. As was natu- 
ral, he gave in appointments a decided preference 
to the small band of devoted friends who, during 
the apparent downfall of his political influence 
which accompanied his removal from the office of 
mayor, had remained steadfast in their affections. 
These were obnoxious from old feelings to the fed- 
eralists, and still more so to the democratic party of 

U2 



234 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

the city, which had been taught to consider them as 
apostates. From this cause, in addition to the dis- 
satisfaction arising from disappointed apphcations, 
a great loss of popularity arose, and Clinton had 
not in his hands the powerful engine of party dis- 
ciphne by which unsuccessful applicants for office 
are compelled to hide their griefs. 

The triumph of the canal policy had produced 
discontent in many of the counties which derived 
no direct benefit from it. This was artfully foster- 
ed ; and, assigning to Chnton that prominent agen- 
cy in procuring the passage of the canal bill, and 
creating the canal policy of the state, which was 
afterward denied him by the same persons, an out- 
cry was raised against what was opprobriously 
styled " the big ditch," and against Clinton as its 
projector and supporter. 

The honest opponents of the canal believed it 
to be a visionary and impracticable scheme. The 
political foes of Clinton endeavoured to strengthen 
them in this opinion by every possible, argument, 
and demanded that his political success should be 
made to depend on the success or failure of that 
project. So powerful were these arguments as to 
shake the belief of many of his most earnest friends, 
and he w^as strongly urged by many of them to 
separate his fortunes from an enterprise, the success 
of which was at least doubtful. Clinton reassured 
them by pleading the absolute certainty of its suc^ 



DEWITT CLINTON. 235 

cess, and determined to risk the chance of victory 
or defeat on that question alone, which thus be- 
came the main point at issue in the ensuing elec- 
tion. 

The militia system, as practised in the United 
States, is obnoxious to ridicule. That shopkeepers, 
tailors, and attorneys shall, by virtue of a brevet or 
commission, attach high-sounding military titles to 
their names, may easily be made a matter of mer- 
riment to those who forget that a country shop- 
keeper successfully defended the Niagara frontier, 
and carried the war into the enemy's country ; 
that a tailor trained a militia brigade to manoeuvre 
as well as regular troops ; and that an attorney 
led the battalions which crossed bayonets with the 
veterans of Wellington, and drove them from the 
field. The ridicule which the system itself may 
be made to provoke, was poured upon the head of 
the functionary whence the commissions and bre- 
vets issued. 

His first term of office had been marked by two 
reforms of great moment in the administration of 
the laws. The first was the reduction of the num- 
ber of justices' courts. These had become an ab- 
solute nuisance; the marshals were permitted to 
act as counsel for the plaintiff in the suit, and 
strong suspicion was entertained of collusion be- 
tween them and the magistrates whence they de- 
rived their appointments. At all events, the great 



236 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

number of suits which were decided in favour of 
those who brought business to the court, gave 
ground for a beUef of unfair influence. By the 
new law nearly a thousand petty courts ceased to 
exist, with their retinue of official harpies. 

A practice had gradually grown up among attor- 
neys of buying up claims for the purpose of prose- 
cuting them. This had reached to such an extent 
as to amount to a serious evil. Postested notes, 
and other demands on which the original creditor 
would have hesitated to incur the costs, were, 
when in the hands of legal men, made the source 
of oppression. This system was abolished by 
law, and the taxable costs were, in addition, so 
much reduced as to render it not worth pursuing. 
The underlings of the legal profession v/ere much 
enraged at this change, so advantageous for cH- 
ents, and one of them was so far carried away by 
his anger as to resign his license in open court. 

These reforms fell upon men who are most loud 
and busy at elections, and arrayed their whole 
force in enmity against Clinton. 

Such being the elements of opposition, and such 
the weapons it had in its power to employ, it only 
remained to seek for a suitable candidate to run 
against Clinton when the three years for which he 
had been elected as a substitute for Tompkins 
should have expired. Such a candidate was found 
in Tompkins himself, who, although he had re- 



DEWITT CLINTON. 237 

/ 

signed the office of governor in order to accept 
that of vice-president, was induced to oppose 
CHnton : and although, if successful, he must re- 
turn to the post whence he had considered him- 
self promoted. We have already seen what an 
extent of popularity he had acquired ; and he was 
the most formidable competitor who could possibly 
have been selected. 

Tompkins had been throughout opposed to the 
canal, and his election would in all probability 
have been followed by the cessation of all work 
upon it, and the withdrawal of the funds appro- 
priated as a pledge, except so far as necessary to 
provide for loans already contracted. On this 
election, then, depended in a great measure the 
hopes of the system of internal improvement ; for 
had Clinton been defeated in this instance, it 
would have been hardly possible to find any pol- 
itician who would have renewed the consideration 
of a question, on which he had been so signally 
defeated. 

The election was contested with great spirit on 
both sides. The southern counties gave Tomp- 
kins large majorities, but they were more than 
counteracted by the population of the West, and 
Clinton received about two thousand votes more 
than his opponent. On the other hand, as the di- 
vision of the state into counties and senatorial dis- 
tricts did not give to the new regions of the West 



238 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

a representation proportioned to their population, 
the House of Assembly mustered a majority of the 
friends of Tompkins, by whom also a large pro- 
portion of the vacancies in the Senate were sup- 
plied. Clinton therefore entered upon his new 
term of office in 1819 along with a hostile Legis- 
lature. 

We have stated that the influence of the ex- 
ecutive of the general government was arrayed 
against Clinton in this election. This influence 
had been gradually growing for several yeai*s. 
At the adoption of the Constitution, the minor ap- 
pointments of the custom-house had been chiefly 
given to officers of the Revolutionary army ; and, 
although by far the greater part of these had 
joined the federal party, Jefferson would not per- 
mit them to be disturbed. This was in accordance 
with his usual policy, not to remove from office 
without cause ; and the mere expression of prefer- 
ence by a silent vote he did not admit to be one. 
The number of this respectable body was rapidly 
thinned by death, while, at the same time, the 
growing commerce of New- York demanded that 
more officers should be appointed than would 
merely fill the vacancies. The appointments Avere 
generally made from among those who had been 
the most active at elections in the support of the 
democratic party. Gaining their offices by such 
means, they did not relax their electioneering ef- 



D E W I T T C L I x\ T N. 239 

forts after appointment, but continued to figure as 
leaders of the party. 

Clinton felt himself aggrieved by the strength 
which this body of active politicians gave to the 
ranks of his opponents. 

In King's county the election had been decided 
against him by the workmen of the navy-yard. 
These, not content with the quiet exercise of the 
elective franchise, had proceeded to the polls in 
procession, to the sound of military music. 

Indignant at what he considered an unwarrant- 
able interference in the state elections, Clinton 
could not refrain from alluding to the facts in his 
speech to the Legislature. This body, although 
the fact that all on whom the government could 
exert influence had voted against him was notori- 
ous, affected to doubt his statement, and with little 
courtesy called for proofs. It w^as trusted, in ma- 
king this call, that the links by which the acts at 
the polls were connected with the government at 
Washington could not be detected, and in the ev- 
idence he adduced a part of them w^as wanting. 
He however proved, in more than one instance, 
that votes were given under the influence of fear 
of loss of oflSce. At the present day, the fact of 
direct influence exerted by the executive is not 
doubted, and the evil has become such that a law 
has been passed by Congress to prevent the ofl^i- 



240 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

cers of the customs from "being assessed for the 
support of elections. 

Clinton, who could not read the secret coun- 
cils of his enemies, unluckily chose by name as 
an active agent of the government in opposing 
him one who was his sincere friend, and had la- 
boured most strenuously to prevent a breach be- 
tw^een the president and the governor of New- 
York, but who, failing in the attempt, for reasons 
very different from personal hostility, was found in 
the ranks of his political opponents. The mutual 
friends of the parties had, however, the gratifica- 
tion to see that, before the lapse of many years, 
amicable relations were restored between them. 

However ably and completely the general truth 
of his allegations was supported by Clinton, the 
Legislature treated the matter as a party question, 
and the only opportunity which has presented it- 
self of examining how far the general govern- 
ment has a right to interfere with state elections, 
was lost. It would, however, appear to be abso- 
lutely essential to the consistency of the principles 
of a free government, that all who derive emolu- 
ment either from the state or general government, 
by an office held during pleasure, should be ipso 
facto disfranchised. 

The violence of party which had been brought 
into action in this election, so far from subsiding 
after its result was known, became yet greater. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 241 

An array of talent, such as has rarely been enlisted 
in any political struggle, was brought into action 
by the opponents of Clinton. Serious argument, 
satirical poems, and newspaper squibs were show- 
ered upon his policy, his person, and his friends. 
His scientific pursuits, in particular, became the 
subject of ridicule. He, on his side, defended 
himself manfully ; and if he could not consistent- 
ly descend to encounter the wit of his antagonists, 
he met and often foiled them in serious argument. 
These contests w^ere not carried on without ex- 
citing painful feelings. He had to experience the 
annoyance of seeing men whom he had considered 
as friends, and w^ho were indebted to him for fa- 
vours, arrayed against him. The harmony of the 
canal board itself w^as broken in upon, and he felt 
compelled to pour a torrent of indignant eloquence 
upon one of his colleagues. A still severer trial 
awaited him in a public conflict wdth a soldier 
who stood most deservedly high in the estimation 
of his countrymen for bravery and good conduct. 
It is painful to reflect that two such men should, 
by the force of party violence, have been brought 
into a position of such deadly hostility. Clinton's 
letters on this occasion are among the ablest of 
his productions, and are master-pieces of the art of 
invective. It may be regretted that he felt it ne- 
cessary to vindicate himself by retorting the at- 
tack upon him ; but this course was indispensable 

X 



242 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

in the critical state of his pohtical prospects, and 
was successful in sustaining his personal dignity 
and that of his office. 

The result of the election had shown that a 
very decided majority of the citizens of the state 
was in favour of the canal policy; for not only 
was every vote given for Clinton that of a friend 
to the enterprise, but there were among the adhe- 
rents of Tompkins some who, although the political 
opponents of Clinton, were yet committed to the 
support of that measure. The mode of attack 
was therefore adroitly changed. It was attempt- 
ed to deprive Clinton of all merit in the original 
design of the canal, and all claim to gratitude for 
his exertions in its behalf. He was accused of 
having appropriated what was due to Morris ; and 
when the true state of their relative services was 
known, obscure names, of which the people had 
never heard, were brought forward to deprive both 
of the honour. It is remarkable, that in this dis- 
cussion, Piatt, who had been the first to propose 
action on the part of the state, instead of com- 
mitting the interests to an incorporated company, 
with Geddes, who had explored the Erie route, 
and demonstrated its practicability, were not even 
mentioned. The former was now classed with the 
friends of Clinton ; the latter, who was probably 
on the same list, would have disavowed anything 
which was not actually his due. Neither, there- 



DEWITT CLINTON. 243 

fore, were suited for the purpose of lessening the 
merit of the governor. 

During these discussions, the canal commission- 
ers continued their exertions strenuously. The 
level between Utica and Syracuse was put under 
contract in 1817; ground was broken the 4th of 
July of the same year, and this central portion of 
the canal was finished in 1819. 

Clinton retained, with his office of governor, his 
seat as president of the board of canal commis- 
sioners, and devoted all his leisure from the duties 
of the former to the business of the latter. This 
business he had from the beginning performed 
without any compensation, although by usage he 
might have been fairly entitled to it. He was 
also placed in a position in which he had an 
opportunity of speculating in lands likely to be 
benefited by the location of the canal, and it 
would have been easy to find associates who 
would have purchased in their own names, and 
paid him a share of the profits. This never ap- 
pears to have been even suggested to his mind as 
a temptation. No one dared to approach him 
with such proposals ; and any idea of making use 
to his own emolument of the advantages of his 
position never occurred to him. This course was 
not merely creditable to him as exhibiting his own 
disinterestedness, but from the force of the exam- 



244 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

pie he thus set to his colleagues, and all the en- 
gineers employed upon the work. 

While Clinton acted as governor, the business 
of legislation fell, of course, into other hands. The 
governor might indeed recommend in his speeches 
and messages such policy as he approved, but the 
draught of laws devolved upon committees of the 
two houses. Still, measures were adopted at his 
instance, while he yet was supported by a major- 
. ity of the Legislature, which are of sufficient im- 
portance to be mentioned, but others of no less 
moment, and in which he took a lively interest, 
were neglected. 

In his inaugural speech he recommended the 
institution of Savings' Banks and the establishment 
of a Board of Agriculture. These recommenda- 
tions were repeated in his messages to the Legis- 
lature, and both were finally adopted. They have 
each, in their respective sphere, been of great ben- 
efit. The Savings' Bank, by affording an oppor- 
tunity for investing small amounts, which would 
otherwise have been expended on useless ob- 
jects or committed to irresponsible hands, has not 
only increased the comfort and independence, 
but raised the moral character of the labouring 
classes. The Board of Agriculture, with its 
branches in every county, has excited an emula- 
tion among the farmers which has improved their 
methods of cultivation, and has spread throughout 



DEWITT CLINTON. 245 

the state, by its valuable reports, knowledge of the 
most useful character. 

He also recommended, on more than one occa- 
sion, reforms of the criminal code as well as of 
the civil jurisprudence, which were but partially 
acted upon by the Legislature. 

The State of New- York had always exported 
flour, and the increase of agriculture has kept 
pace with that of population in such manner that 
a surplus production of wheat has been main- 
tained. The soil and climate are highly favoura- 
ble to its culture ; and, as experience has proved, 
there was no reason why the flour of New-York 
should not bear as high a character as that of 
any other state. At the time Clinton was elected 
governor, this was far from being the case. Vir- 
ginia and Pennsylvania enjoyed a higher reputa- 
tion in this respect, and their merchants and 
farmers derived higher profits in consequence. 
Their flour sold in foreign markets from one 
dollar and a half to two dollars higher than that 
of New- York. Clinton satisfied himself that this 
was not owing to any imperfection in the raw 
material, or any fault of the manufacturer pro- 
ducing an average inferiority, but to a careless 
inspection. This, by permitting low qualities to 
pass with the highest brand, brought the whole 
crop down to the value of the lowest in public 
estimation. He therefore, in 1819, proposed ari 

X2 



246 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

alteration of the inspection law, which did not 
pass, but he at the same time superseded the in- 
spector. The consequence of this movement of 
Clinton has been to exalt the character of the 
brands of the New- York inspection, until they 
rank higher than those of any other state. 

His speeches to the Legislature were replete 
with sound views of policy, evincing the experi- 
enced and patriotic statesman j and thus, although 
intended for local purposes alone, they were 
sought with avidity throughout the Union, and 
were awaited with greater interest than the con- 
temporaneous messages of the President of the 
United States, 



DEWITT CLINTON. 247 



CHAPTER XVm. 

Objections to the old Constitution of the State. — 
^11 Parties concur in a desire for its Amend- 
ment. — Bill calling a Convention retwned by 
the Council of Revision. — Clinfon^s Opinions 
on the subject. — Jt Law is passed by which the 
call of a Convention is submitted to a popular 
'i)ote. — Alterations made in the old Constitution. 
— Clinton^ s term of Office is abridged. — He de- 
clines to be a Candidate for re-election. — Acci- 
dent to his leg. — His first Wife dies. — He visits 
the States of Jersey and Ohio. — He visits Penn- 
sylvania. — He is examined before a Committee 
of the Legislature. — He is removed from his 
Office of Canal Commissioner. — Public Indig- 
nation in Consequence. — Attempt of the General 
Government to tax Vessels navigating the Ca- 
qfiaJ., — Clinton is nominated by the Republican 
Convention at Utica, and again elected Gov- 
ernor. — He marries his second Wife, 

The strength of Clinton's opponents in the Le- 
gislature placed him, in a short time after his sec- 
ond election, in the same position to which he had 
brought Jay, namely, in a minority of the counci] 
of appointment. At the same time, moderate mei\ 



248 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

of all parties wished to see this obnoxious feature 
expunged from the Constitution. There was also 
a strong and influential body that desired the 
equalization of the elective franchise, which, under 
the old Constitution, was confined in the choice of 
governor and senators to freeholders alone. There 
were others who were satisfied of the inexpedien- 
cy of that feature of the old Constitution which 
vacated the offices of chancellor and judges when 
the incumbents reached the age of sixty years. 
Finally, it was believed by many, that the fact of 
the judicial officers having in the council of revis- 
ion a veto upon the law^s passed by the Legisla- 
ture, exposed them to the risk of being tempted, 
and thus impaired public confidence in the purity 
of the bench. All classes of men therefore united 
in a desire that a convention should be called to 
amend the Constitution. 

The moderate and judicious seem to have de- 
sired that the council of appointment should be 
continued, to act as the advisers of the govern- 
or, not as his co-equals in this branch of execu- 
tive authority ; and it cannot be doubted that a 
similar provision in relation to the council of re- 
vision would have removed the objections to that 
body, and rendered it a most valuable part of the 
government Experience seems to have proved 
since that it would have been better that the ex- 
ecutive should have had a right to resort to the 



DEWITT CLINTON. 249 

opinion of the united wisdom of the bench on 
questions of constitutional law, rather than to the 
advice of the attorney-general, who can rarely be 
independent of a party bias. That judges should 
retire from office at an age when, if activity of 
body begins to decay, the mind is at its maturity, 
seems to be contrary to all natural reason, and re- 
verses the practice of all countries. 

In respect to the elective franchise the question 
is more difficult. Two opinions have been main- 
tained with almost equal force : the one holds that 
the possession of at least a moderate property is a 
test of wisdom and intelligence well suited to be 
a standard of the qualifications of an elector, while 
the ownership of the soil gives him a personal in- 
terest in the stabihty of government and national 
prosperity, which he who has no such ties can 
never feel ; nor, as it was maintained, could the 
vesting of power exclusively in such hands ever 
degenerate into an aristocracy, so long as the equal 
division of property among all the children of the 
same parents was maintained both by law and 
custom, and all possibility of creating entails was 
prevented. This opinion has been stigmatized as 
aristocratic, but has been defended as the true 
principle of freedom, and in its favour the exam- 
ple of Rome has been adduced, which retained its 
republican institutions so long as the comitia cen- 
turiafa constituted the sovereignty, but fell first 



250 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

into anarchy, and finally into a military despotism, 
as soon as the distinctions arising from taxable 
property, which formed the basis of that mode of 
voting, were abolished. 

On the other hand, it has been maintained, that 
as it is the very principle of American liberty 
that all men are born free and equal, any distinc- 
tion in the right of voting is in opposition to it. 
Clinton, who, during his whole political course, 
placed the firmest reliance upon the virtue and 
intelligence of the people, was of the latter opin- 
ion, although it does not appear that he carried 
his views of the extension of the franchise to the 
length it has now reached. To the will of the 
public, expressed in their primary assemblies, he 
always appealed as the tribunal of last resort on 
political questions; and, next to the canal, the dar- 
ling object of his later years was to bring the 
choice of electors of president immediately to the 
people. 

In the general wish that the Constitution should 
be amended, Clinton participated, and the call of 
a convention for the purpose was recommended by 
him in his message. The Legislature, although 
in opposition to him, was obedient to the popular 
will, and a law directing the election of delegates 
to a convention was passed. In passing this law, 
the Legislature virtually assumed the sovereign 
power to be vested in it, and the convention 



t)EWlTT CLINTON. 251 

would have acted under an authority having its 
source in the Senate and House of Assembly. In 
this viev;^ of the subject Clinton did not concur. 
He conceived that the sovereignty resided of 
right in the people, convened in their primary 
assemblies. When the bill, as passed by the Le- 
gislature, came before the council of revision, he 
pointed out this defect in its principle, and by his 
casting vote it vfQ.s returned to the Legislature. 
Here it was recommitted, and a new law framed, 
by which the question whether a convention should 
be called was submitted to a direct vote at the 
popular elections. 

This vote was in the affirmative by a large ma- 
jority, and a convention was in consequence chosen, 
which assembled at Albany. The political opponents 
of Clinton took advantage of his act in the coun- 
cil of revision to represent him as opposed to all 
change ; and although, to all appearance, but little 
party spirit was manifested in the election of dele- 
gates, it was adroitly managed in such manner 
that but few of his immediate friends were chosen. 

The convention numbered a great many per- 
sons who had been distinguished in the party war- 
fare of the state, and several who had held impor- 
tant public stations during the prevalence as well 
of the federal, as of the democratic party. Be- 
tween these it was supposed that a broad distinc- 
tion existed in relation to the limit of the right 



252 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

of suffrage. The federal party, it was believed, 
held the doctrine of the Enghsh republicans, and 
which had been the basis of the arguments by 
which the Anaerican Re^'olution was justified 5 
namely, that taxation and representation should 
be coextensive. It was, in consequence, expected 
that the members of the convention who had be- 
longed to this party would have opposed any far- 
ther extension of the right of suffrage in the elec- 
tion of members of Assembly, and been reluctant 
to do away with the freehold qualification in the 
voters for governor and senators. 

The democratic party, on the other hand, had 
secured its ascendency by avowed obedience to the 
popular will, and an effort on its part to deprive 
the freeholders of their peculiar privileges was to 
have been expected. 

To the surprise of those who w^ere not acquaint- 
ed with the secret springs of action, all parties ex- 
hibited an anxiety to outbid each other for popu- 
larity, by extending the right of voting for all 
offices to the widest possible hmit. More doubt 
and hesitation was shown at first by the old repub- 
licans than by those who had been counted as fed- 
eralists ; but the desire of appearing on the popu- 
lar side prevailed with all, and no requisite was 
demanded in any voter except citizenship and res- 
idence. 

The security of the institutions of the State of 



DEWITT CLINTON. 253 

New-York, and of the life, liberty, and property 
of its inhabitants, must henceforth depend on the 
virtue and intelligence of a majority of its voters. 
It is not to be disguised, that many anxious pa- 
triots entertain forebodings that the experiment has 
been extended too far, and may not be successful. 
No, doubt need be entertained of the permanence 
of the mere forms of republican institutions, but 
their fears point to a diminution in the sanctity of 
property, and of security for persons who may be- 
come obnoxious to popular displeasure from vio- 
lence unauthorized by law. Such gloomy forebo- 
dings are, however, founded on a belief that the 
new classes of voters are ignorant and vicious; 
against which we have a sure remedy in the uni- 
versal extension and beneficial influence of the 
common school system. 

By the Constitution framed by this convention 
the council of appointment was abolished, the right 
of nomination being vested in the governor, and 
the concurrence of the Senate was rendered ne- 
cessary. The council of revision was also abohsh- 
ed, and the veto vested in the governor, subject to 
a reversal by a vote of two thirds of the members 
of both houses. The objectionable feature in rela- 
tion to the judges was retained, showing how, in 
such instances, party spirit and feelings of individ- 
ual dislike may prevail over considerations of pub- 
lic good. The chancellor and judges had not 

Y 



254 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

joined the party in opposition to Clinton, and 
there was not sufficient manhness to point them 
out directly by allowing their offices to expire on 
their reaching the age to which the old Constitu- 
tion had limited their term, and ordaining that 
their successors should remain on the bench to a 
more advanced period of life. 

The convention mustered a decided majority of 
the opponents of Clinton. In spite of this, the ca- 
nal policy, for which he had so long contended, 
was triumphant. Clinton's belief in the correct- 
ness of the final judgment of the people was jus- 
tified ; and those who had on former occasions been 
the opponents of the canal, were now compelled, 
by public opinion or by their own convictions, to 
support its policy. The canal was made inaliena- 
ble by any act of the Legislature ; and the fund, 
which had before been pledged by law, was now 
established more firmly by a clause in the Consti- 
tution. 

The new Constitution, by changing the day on 
which the legal year began from the 4th of July 
to the 1st of January, abridged Clinton's term of 
office ; and it was believed by many that the de- 
sire to remove him had been the real object of this 
change. 

A new division of parties had arisen, founded 
on the claims of diiferent individuals to the presi- 
dential chair. Mr. Monroe had undertaken to 



DEWITT CLINTON. 255 

govern without reference to the ancient divisions 
of party, and three candidates for the succession 
started from his own cabinet. General Jackson 
and Mr. Clay were also named ; and there were 
not wanting many persons in other states who 
would gladly have given their suffrages for Clin- 
ton himself. In the State of New- York, Messrs. 
Crawford and Adams were the prominent candi- 
dates, and parties were formed in support of their 
respective pretensions. With neither of these 
would Clinton connect himself, and he would not 
appear as a candidate for the office himself. He 
therefore resolved not to be a candidate for the 
office of governor, which would have required his 
uniting himself to one of these parties, or coming 
forward as a candidate for the presidency. 

The long sway of a party opposed to him in the 
Legislature, and the proscription to which all who 
avowed themselves his friends were exposed, had 
the effect of terrifying all aspirants for political 
influence or lucrative offices from his side ; and the 
artful policy of his enemies, in adopting his favour- 
ite measures, had left him without the power of 
joining issue with them in an appeal to the popu- 
lar voice. Joseph Yates was elected in his stead, 
overcoming a feeble opposition on the part of Sol- 
omon Southwick. 

In the summer of 1818, Clinton met with an ac- 
cident which caused the fracture of his leg. His 



256 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

recovery was slow and painful, and he was com- 
pelled for some time to use crutches ; nor did he 
ever wholly overcome a slight lameness. This in- 
jury had an unfavourable effect upon his health, 
by rendering him unable any longer to take the 
exercises to which he had been accustomed, and 
in which he took pleasure. He had been in the 
habit of riding much on horseback, and was fond 
of field sports ; from both of these he was now 
debarred ; and to this change in his habits, from 
active to sedentary, may be ascribed the gradual 
approach of that disease, which carried him off in 
the zenith of his faculties. 

This accident was preceded by a severe afflic- 
tion in his family, the loss of his wife, who, in 
the language of his diary, " retired to another and 
better world with characteristic fortitude." 

The retirement of Clinton from office did not 
cause him to cease from his exertions for the pub- 
lic good, but rather extended the sphere of his 
beneficial action. If, in his native state, there 
were those who doubted the importance of his 
agency in creating the canal policy, and others 
who, with better knowledge, denied him due hon- 
our, he was, in other parts of the Union, fully ap- 
preciated ; and those who, with just views of duty, 
sought to extend to their own states the benefits 
of the policy so successful in New-York, appealed 
to his powerful aid. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 257 

In the State of New- Jersey an old project had 
been revived for the construction of the Raritan 
and Delaware Canal. The great importance of 
this measure, in a national point of view, had been 
developed in the report of Mr. Gallatin. At the 
same time, a novel and almost unexampled plan 
of a canal across the great Atlantic ridge from the 
Passaic to the Delaware had been brought for- 
ward. The friends of the latter measure request- 
ed Clinton to visit the region and inquire into its 
practicability. Having satisfied himself that the 
means proposed wxre feasible, he drew up a re- 
port on the subject, urging that this canal should 
be constructed by the state. Some weeks after, 
on the invitation of the state authorities, he visited 
Trenton. Here he not only enforced by personal 
communication the opinion he had already given, 
but exhorted the two rival sections of the state to 
union, and pointed out the advantages of making 
both canals at the expense of the state. In this 
instance his enlightened views did not prevail. 
The Legislature shrunk from the responsibility of 
undertaking both canals, and the partisans of each 
were too powerful to allow of the adoption of the 
other as a state work. Subsequently, the two en- 
terprises have been each intrusted to a chartered 
company, and the result of their operations has 
justified the prescience of Clinton. Enough has 
been done to show that, had the state executed 

Y2 



258 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

them, both must have been profitable; while to the 
companies which have held them, from causes in- 
separably connected with the management of 
chartered companies, they have yielded no profit. 
The Delaware and Raritan Canal has imposed 
tolls so high as to exclude all transit of heavy 
commodities, while the Morris Canal has, by a 
departure from its original plan, and deviations 
from the system on which Clinton's opinion of its 
feasibility was founded, become so costly, that a 
trade as large as was anticipated does not pay an 
adequate dividend. The Legislature, too, in order 
to encourage capitalists to embark in this project, 
endowed the Morris Canal Company with banking 
privileges, and these have been so badly managed 
as almost to involve it in ruin. 

He w^as also invited to visit Ohio. Here his 
views of policy prevailed. That state, after de- 
liberate inquiry into the practicability of a canal 
from Lake Erie to the River Ohio, undertook its 
construction ; and to Clinton the high compliment 
was assigned, although in no official capacity, and 
in the presence of the governor of the state, of 
removing the first earth of the excavation. His 
journey through Ohio was one continued triumph, 
and resembled more the progress of Lafayette 
than the travel of any native citizen of however 
exalted rank or extended popularity. 

In the summer of 1824, Clinton, by invitation, 



D E W I T T CLINTON. 259 

visited the State of Pennsylvania, for the purpose 
of giving the aid of his high authority in the fur- 
therance of the system of internal improvements 
projected in that state. A want of enterprise and 
exertion had hitherto characterized its Legislature, 
and it had intrusted to private companies some 
of the most important lines of communication 
within its limits. In its subsequent awakening to 
a sense of the importance of taking the public 
works into the hands of the state, a desire to meet 
the views of every interest has caused the expan- 
sion of the operations over too great a space. 
Partial efforts have been made in many places, 
and on these an amount of money has been ex- 
pended, which, if applied to any single obje('t, 
must have yielded adequate returns. These im- 
provements do not even pay the interest on their 
cost; and, by a want of foresight, no adequate 
funds were provided in advance to meet such an 
emergency. The example of this great and opu- 
lent state, which is at present paralyzed in its ex- 
ertions for the want of wise and decided measures, 
may serve to show of how great importance it was 
to the State of New -York that there was in it one 
person possessing sufficient weight and influence 
to direct its energies in a more skilful manner. 

Clinton seemed born to illustrate in his own 
person the fickle character of attachments found- 
ed on political considerations. Up to the year 



260 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

1812 he had been the idol of the democratic 
party in the State of New-York, and had been 
their almost unanimous nominee for the office of 
president of the United States; but when the in- 
fluence of the general government was exerted 
against him, all the leading politicians, with rare 
exceptions, abandoned him. Nor were they con- 
tent with this, but commenced attacks upon him 
until he was removed from the mayoralty. His 
subsequent elevation to the office of governor was 
a spontaneous act of the people, in which politi- 
cians by profession had little to do ; but he was at 
once surrounded by those who had persecuted him 
in his adverse fortunes. The close of his second 
term as governor was attended by a similar deser- 
tion of political men ; and in the Legislature which 
first met under the new Constitution, hardly a man 
was to be found bold enough to avow himself the 
adherent of his fortunes. 

In the succeeding Legislature the case was still 
stronger, and to coldness was added direct injury. 
He was, in the first place, called before a commit- 
tee of the Legislature to be examined on the sub- 
ject of the canals. The examination, it is said, 
was not conducted with any of the courtesy to 
which the rank he had recently held in the state 
would have seemed to entitle him. It would ap- 
pear to have been intended to afford grounds for 
the justification of an act which the leaders of the 



DEWITT CLINTON. 261 

dominant party had resolved upon, but they fail- 
ed in finding any. The act, however, was not, 
for that reason, left undone. On the last day of 
the session of 1824, a resolution was introduced 
into the Senate removing Clinton from his office as 
canal commissioner. This resolution was carried 
without debate, and with but three dissenting voi- 
ces. In the House it prevailed by a vote of more 
than two thirds of the members ; no speech was 
made in justification or explanation of it, and the 
only opposition in words was an eloquent and in- 
dignant speech, made on the spur of the occasion 
by Cunningham, of Montgomery county, a man 
whose honesty of purpose, independence of char- 
acter, and promising talent were prematurely lost 
to the state. 

At the time of this vote Clinton had been for 
fourteen years steadily engaged in promoting the 
cause of the internal navigation of the state, and, 
whether in or out of office, had received no com- 
pensation for these services. It seems to have 
been believed by the leaders in this unmerited 
insult, that Clinton had entirely lost all his popu- 
larity, and that it was only necessary to deprive 
him of the little influence which the office of ca- 
nal commissioner gave him, in order to close his 
political career for ever. In both views of the 
subject they were mistaken. Clinton, although 
to appearance abandoned by all his mere political 



262 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

partisans, had lost none of his well-earned popu- 
larity with the people at large, and this act of the 
Legislature served to call this popularity into ac- 
tion. The news of his removal had no sooner 
reached the principal towns in the state, than 
meetings were called to express the popular in- 
dignation at the removal of Clinton from the office 
he had so long and so worthily held. In the City 
of New-York, not less than ten thousand persons 
assembled at the call ; and the proportionate num- 
bers were much greater in other places, for the 
city still continued to be the seat of his most ac- 
tive opponents. Many of these, however, united 
in the proceedings, and the chairman of the city 
meeting was Colonel Few, who had long been op- 
posed to him in politics. 

The term of office of Governor Yates was about 
to expire, and a convention was assembled to nom- 
inate a candidate for the succession. At this con- 
vention, Clinton, much to the surprise of those 
who had considered him as completely fallen, was 
at once proposed as a fit person to be selected. 
A discussion arose, which ended in the retirement 
of the delegation of the City of New-York and a 
few others, amounting in all to twenty members. 
After the secession of this party, the nomination 
of Clinton was concurred in with absolute una- 
nimity. 

The overwhelming influence which was brought 



DEWITT CLINTON. 263 

to bear upon this convention by the popular voice, 
arose in a great degree from a correct appreciation 
of the value of his services in securing the con- 
struction of the canal and the triumph of the pol- 
icy of internal improvement. It was also aided 
by the strong interest which Clinton took in the 
question of the manner of choosing the electors of 
president. This had been hitherto done by the 
Legislature ; and a strong effort, in which Clinton 
aided, was now making to give the choice direct- 
ly to the people. Those politicians who, with the 
loudest professions of obedience to the popular 
will, held the power in their hands through a ma- 
jority of the Legislature, were averse to parting 
with it, and the contrast between their professions 
and acts had no little effect in restoring the influ- 
ence of Clinton. 

An important question had also arisen in respect 
to the navigation of the canal. Its size was such 
that the vessels which navigate it fall within the 
description of those required to receive licenses 
from the custom-houses of the general govern- 
ment. Although the administration was in the 
hands of those professing an exclusive attachment 
to state rights, an attempt was made to extend the 
authority of the officers of the customs over the 
vessels navigating the canal. As the canal lies 
wholly within the limits of a single state, this 
attempt could not be justified upon the grant of 



264 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

powers to regulate either foreign commerce or that 
between the states. To have brought this plan 
into operation would have been a gross and un- 
warrantable usurpation, and as such it was con- 
sidered by all those who had a proper feeling of 
the rights of their native state. There was, how- 
ever, a moment when it appeared probable that 
the attempt to enforce this measure would be suc- 
cessful. It therefore became necessary to unite 
all the strength which could be collected in op- 
position to it. It was seen and felt that Clinton 
was the leader under whose direction this opposi- 
tion might be most efficiently brought into action, 
and that in the office of governor alone he would 
have the power necessary to counteract the con- 
templated usurpation. 

The party which had withdrawn from the con- 
vention did not submit quietly to its decisions, but 
nominated Colonel Young, the former colleague 
of Clinton in the canal board, as a candidate in 
opposition to him. His nomination, however, met 
with a signal defeat, and Clinton was elected gov- 
ernor by a majority over his opponent of upward 
of sixteen thousand votes. 

We have in this place to speak of Clinton's 
second marriage, which occurred before the close 
of his second term of service as governor. The 
lady whom he chose was Miss Catharine Jones, 
the daughter of Dr. Thomas Jones, an eminent 



DEWITT CLINTON. 265 

physician in the City of New-York. It would ap- 
pear, from passages and extracts in his common- 
place book, that the propriety of contracting a 
second marriage had been a subject of serious re- 
flection, and that his judgment was fully satisfied 
that the step was an expedient one. Of this esti- 
mable lady, who still survives, feehngs of delicacy 
will prevent us from saying more. 

Z 



266 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Sticcess of the Canal Policy. — Silver Vases are 
presented to Clinton by the Merchants of Jfew- 
York. — He is invited hy Mr. Mams to serve as 
Minister to Great Britain, and declines. — Great 
Celebration of the opening of the Canal. — JYew 
and important Public Works recommended by 
Clinton. — His plan of a Board of Public Works. 
— Antimasonic Excitement. — Coalition to defeat 
Clinton's election as Governor. — He is, notwith- 
standing, re-elected. 

In conformity with the election of which we have 
spoken, Clinton resumed his seat as Governor of 
the State of New-York in January, 1825. He 
now had it in his power to communicate officially 
the triumph of the system of which he had so long 
been an advocate. Little more than seven years 
had elapsed since the first earth was removed from 
the bed of the canal, and it was now approaching 
to completion. In the summer of 1823 boats had 
passed into the Hudson, and the navigation was 
open thence to within a short distance of Buffalo. 
The revenues of the canal fund had derived the 
increase he had anticipated from the very action 
of the canal itself. The two principal items were 



DEWITT CLINTON. 267 

the salt duties and those on auction sales. The 
facilities afforded to the transport of salt had en- 
larged the sphere of its consumption, and thus 
the quantity manufactured had been increased. 
Wealth had been diffused along the line of the 
canal, calling for new articles of luxury and util- 
ity, while the abundance of the products of which 
the City of New-York became the market and the 
place of export, was rapidly rendering it the cen- 
tral point of the import trade of the Union. The 
sales at auction were multiplied from all these 
causes, and a larger revenue accrued. The canal 
itself, although not completed, nor in the reception 
of the trade of the Western Lakes, already yielded 
tolls of an unexpected amount. It happened from 
all these causes that Clinton had the satisfaction 
to announce, in his first message to the Legislature, 
that the income of the canal fund, when added to 
the tolls, exceeded the interest on the cost of the 
canal by nearly four hundred thousand dollars. 

A degree of prosperity unexampled, and hard- 
ly anticipated by the most sanguine, prevailed 
throughout the state. The City of New-York, 
which in 1818 had witnessed a decrease in its 
population, and a prodigious fall in the value of 
property, had now recovered its prosperity, and 
was increasing in population and wealth in a ratio 
higher than at any former period. The counties 
on the banks of the Hudson, and those on Long 



268 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

Island, which had feared a decay in their agricul- 
ture in consequence of the admission of rivals 
from the West in the supply of the city, saw these 
gloomy anticipations contradicted by experience. 
The western parts of the state had been in a man- 
ner created by the operation of the canal. The 
regions w^hence the transport of the produce to the 
Hudson had been equal to its whole value in Al- 
bany, were > ow placed almost on equality with 
those upon the Hudson. Land to the west of the 
Seneca Lake was enh??'^ ced in value fourfold, and 
that less remote, if not benefited in as high a ratio, 
derived advantages corresponding to its distance. 

The mercantile interest in the city, enjoying a 
degree of prosperity such as the most sanguine 
anticipations had never contempb'- .; '^-cnsidered 
Clinton as the prominent cause of the vast increase 
of trade which the canal had opened. It was 
therefore resolved to take measures for the pur- 
pose of signifying to him the high opinion which 
was entertained by the merchants ^ his public 
services. With this intention a meeting w^as call- 
ed, at which it v/as determined that a subscription 
should be raised for the purpose of purchasing ar- 
ticles of plate, to be presented to Clinton as an 
evidence of their gratitude, and to serve as a dura- 
ble memorial of the benefits conferred by him 
upon the City and the State of New-York. 

The subscription was speedily filled up ; and, ir^ 



DEWITT CLINTON. 269 

conformity with the intentions of the meeting, two 
large and rich silver vases were procured, and for- 
mally presented to Clinton by a committee on be- 
half of the merchants. Valuable as w^as the ma- 
terial of this present ; much as the workmanship, 
remarkable for beauty of design and elaborate ex- 
ecution, exceeded the material in cost, the gift 
owed its real value to the fact of its being the 
symbol of the unanimous approbation of the most 
intelligent, enterprising, and public-spirited body 
of citizens which could have been collected for 
any object whatever. The merchants of New- 
York belong to all political parties ; are connect- 
ed with every diversity of religious sect ; they are, 
besides, divided by variety of interests and occu- 
pations, and are actuated by strong feelings of 
rivalry. On no other occasion have they ever 
been united in an unanimous expression of opin- 
ion ; and the proverbial acuteness with which they 
discern matters effecting their pecuniary interests, 
renders this spontaneous tribute to the merits and 
services of Clinton a compliment such as has been 
paid to no other American statesman. 

After his death, these vases, under the law of 
the equal distribution of inheritances, were, in the 
absence of a will, necessarily sold. At the sale 
they were purchased by a new subscription, and 
presented to his oldest surviving son. It is in 
instances of this sort that the law abolishing all 

Z2 



270 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

entailment seems hard and impolitic. It might have 
gratified the donors to know that the gift would 
never be alienated from the family of Clinton, and 
the gift would have been enhanced in value to him. 
Clinton had, as we have seen, avoided enga- 
ging himself with the adherents of either of the 
candidates for the presidency in the place of Mr. 
Monroe. The most prominent of these had been 
members of the cabinet of that gentleman, and the 
decided opposition which he had shown to Chn- 
ton's interests in New- York must have prevented 
him from having any very friendly feeling towards 
them. On the withdrawal of Mr. Crawford, the 
party which had supported him turned their views 
towards General Jackson. To him alone of all 
the candidates could Chnton have any personal 
likino-. The friends of Crawford had been the 
agents in his removal from the office of canal com- 
missioner, while the very men who had been most 
influential in obtaining for Adams the electoral 
vote of New-York were those who had seceded 
from the convention by which Clinton was nom- 
inated for governor. Jackson, on the other hand, 
had rebuked, in the very seat of the power of the 
personal opponents of Clinton, the ingratitude of 
the state towards its most useful and distinguished 
citizen. Still it was impossible that Clinton could 
act with the party which, on the withdrawal of 
Crawford, transferred their support to Jackson. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 271 

Hence, at his election as governor, he was free 
from all connexion with the friends of either of 
the candidates for the presidency. 

The vote of the electoral colleges was not de- 
cisive ; the choice of president therefore devolved 
upon the House of Representatives, and Mr. Ad- 
ams was elected. This gentleman was no sooner 
made aware of his success, than he determined to 
offer to Clinton the appointment of minister to 
England. The offer was accordingly made, but 
was, without hesitation, declined by the latter. In 
his refusal, Clinton assigns as the principal reason, 
the obligation he was under to the citizens of his 
native state, who had so recently and by so large 
a majority elected him to the chief magistracy. 
There is no need of searching for other motives, 
nor is it probable that any other influenced him at 
the moment. It is obvious, however, that Clinton 
would have been brought, by the acceptance of 
the ofhce, into political communion with many 
who had been his opponents from personal enmi- 
ty as well as upon political grounds. A few 
months' experience satisfied him in confirmation of 
the correctness of his decision, that Mr. Adams 
could not hope for a re-election, and that all who 
had become connected with him must share in his 
downfall. 

The office of Governor of the State of New- 
York held out to Clinton, at the moment, induce- 



272 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

ments for contmuance in it which no temptation 
in any other direction could probably have over- 
come. The canal, to which so much of his atten- 
tion had been devoted, and in which he had taken 
so lively an interest, was approaching its comple- 
tion ; and to preside as chief magistrate at the cel- 
ebration of the entire opening of that work, into 
which he, as senior commissioner, had put the first 
spade, was a triumph such as few men have been 
able to enjoy. As this great undertaking ap- 
proached its conclusion, preparations were made 
along its whole extent for public rejoicings ; nor 
were such preparations confined to the banks of 
the canal, but extended to the shores of the Hud- 
son and the City of New-York. The water of 
' Lake Erie was admitted into the canal on the 
26th October, 1826, and the interesting fact was 
announced by signal cannon, which conveyed the 
joyful tidings in a few minutes to the beach of 
the ocean. Immediately thereafter, a flotilla set 
out from the harbour of Buffalo, conveying the 
ffovernor, the canal commissioners, and numerous 
distinguished persons, and bearing the symbolic 
representation of the lake to be wedded to the 
deity of the ocean. At Albany the flotilla was 
increased by an escort of steamboats, and, on en- 
tering the bounds of the City of New-York, the 
corporation and public authorities joined in the 
aquatic procession by which the water of the 



DEWITT CLINTON. 273 

lake was borne to be mingled with the tide of the 
sea. 

Our country has never witnessed any ceremony 
accompanied by such pomp, nor one which dif- 
fused in every breast such unmingled feelings of 
gratification. All feelings of party spirit were 
suspended, and even the bitterness of personal 
animosity was for a monent neutralized. Clinton 
was received at every place as the chief instru- 
ment of the blessings which had already been ex- 
perienced, but which all felt to be the mere prel- 
ude of what were to follow j and, while thousands 
had aided in promoting the great design, no whis- 
per was heard to indicate that he had any rival in 
the magnitude of his exertions or the amount of 
his services. 

A mind of ordinary character might have been 
content with the glory thus acquired; one who 
had attained such a height of reputation without 
deserving it, might have feared to venture it by 
proposing new measures of the same description ; 
while devotion to the cause of the Erie Canal 
might have had the effect of rendering even clear- 
sighted persons blind to the value of other plans 
of internal improvement. Clinton was influenced 
by no such feelings. Even before the canal was 
completed, and in the very act of seating himself 
in the gubernatorial chair, he pointed out to the 
Legislature new channels of internal coramunica- 



274 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

tion, as likely to be new sources of wealth to the 
state. 

The counties which lie on the right bank of the 
St. Lawrence are naturally rich and fertile, but, 
in consequence of the difficulty of communication, 
land situated in them has rather fallen than risen in 
value since the internal improvements of the state 
were begun, and the population has shown a dis- 
position to remove to more accessible regions. A 
part of this country might be brought into com- 
munication with the Erie Canal by means of a 
canal from the valley of the Black River to that 
of the Mohawk. This, however, would be costly, 
in consequence of the height of the summit level, 
unless some cheaper mode than that of locks could 
be introduced for overcoming it. The mountains 
which occupy so great a portion of the north of 
the state, fall away about the 45th degree of lat- 
itude, and it is obvious that a canal from the St. 
Lawrence to Lake Champlain is practicable. This 
would open the whole of this region, and render it 
accessible to commerce. Clinton recommended 
this line of communication to the notice of the Le- 
gislature ; and, as the best route would enter partly 
into the British territory, suggests the propriety of 
endeavouring to obtain permission to make the 
canal from the government of Great Britain, or of 
negotiating an exchange for territory in some oth- 
er region. Nothing has been done towards the 



DEWITT CLINTON. 275 

promotion of this project, and it will rest among 
those instances in which local interests have tri- 
umphed over the public good. 

It had been among the points of policy which 
Clinton had most strenuously supported, that the 
communication with Lake Ontario should be avoid- 
ed. When, however, the completion of the direct 
route to Lake Erie was assured, an important re- 
gion on that lake seemed to demand a communica- 
tion with the great canal. Clinton entered warm- 
ly into the support of this project, and made it the 
subject of a recommendation to the Legislature. 

It has been seen that an imperfect navigation, 
interrupted by portages, had connected the Cayu- 
ga and Seneca Lakes with the Mohawk, but from 
the Erie Canal no communication to those lakes 
had been provided. Canandaigua Lake, which 
had been before reached by no navigation, al- 
though of less extent, lies also in the heart of a 
rich country. The connexion of these three lakes 
with the Erie Canal, appeared to Clinton to be an 
object of great importance, and the consideration 
of this subject w^as, in consequence, urged upon 
the Legislature. 

Crooked Lake empties its waters into the Sene- 
ca Lake, and from the head of the former a long 
portage had afforded access to the Tioga or Che- 
mung Branch of the Susquehanna. It appeared 
that a canal was practicable in this direction, and 



276 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY 

this seemed to Clinton of sufficient importance to 
be made one of the subjects of his first message 
to the Legislature. 

Of these projected canals, those which join the 
Seneca and Cayuga Lakes to the Erie Canal have 
been constructed, in conformity with Clinton's rec- 
ommendations, as has that from the Seneca Lake 
to the Chemung. Those who have entertained 
less liberal views of the policy of the state in re- 
spect to internal improvements, have not failed to 
remark, that the tolls on these canals have not 
met the interest on their cost. It seems, however, 
to have been demonstrated, that the state is no 
loser j for, although the receipts collected on the 
lines of these canals fall short of this object, it is 
to be considered that, if they be added to the tolls 
accruing to the Erie Canal from vessels which en- 
ter it from these lateral navigations, the sum will 
be more than sufficient to meet the interest on the 
cost of these public works. Even did they not 
suffice for this purpose, an amount of wealth has 
been created by these canals which far exceeds 
their whole cost. 

Besides these subjects of general interest, Clin- 
ton did not refuse to devote his attention to mat- 
ters merely local. Among the most important of 
these was the project for supplying the City of 
New-York with water. The necessity of some 
provision for this purpose was also pressed upon 



DEW ITT CLINTON. 277 

the Legislature in his first message. This recom- 
mendation, although not acted upon at that time, 
was the first step towards that grant of additional 
powers to the corporation of New- York, which 
has led to the execution of the plan of bringing 
water from near the sources of the Croton for the 
supply of the teeming population of that city. 

The same message contains a recommendation 
that a board of public works should be " constitu- 
ted, with authority to consider and report on all 
subjects relative to the establishment of communi- 
cations by land and water, by roads, railways, 
bridges, canals, and water-courses, with a general 
superintending power over their construction." 
In relation to this plan he remarks, " The field of 
operation, and the harvest of honour and profit, are 
unbounded : and if our resources are wisely ap- 
plied and forcibly directed, all proper demands for 
important avenues of communication may be an- 
swered in due time and in proper extent." No 
one can look upon the course which events have 
taken since his decease without being satisfied of 
the wisdom of this recommendation, and of the 
great advantage the state would have derived from 
a board exercising a superintendence over all 
plans of improvement, in the place of one confi- 
ned in its operations to the Erie and Champlain 
Canals. 

The year 1825 was marked by an incident 

Aa 



278 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

which produced a change in the aspect of parties, 
and for a time set at defiance the calculations of 
the most experienced politicians. 

A person of the name of Morgan, residing at 
Batavia, in Genesee county, had undertaken to 
publish the secrets of freemasonry. This had been 
resented by some over-zealous brethren of the craft, 
and the obnoxious party was abducted, nay, in all 
probability, murdered. For this act there can be 
no possible defence. However guilty, in a moral 
sense, may have been the individual who had vio- 
lated the solemn oaths by which it is said the ad- 
mission to this fraternity is guarded, it was not a 
crime in the eye of the law ; and, in a well-regu- 
lated community, the right of inflicting punishment 
even for legal offences is not to be exercised by in- 
dividuals or associations. 

Many have presumed, from the vengeance with 
which Morgan's publication was visited, that he 
had revealed at least a part of the treasured secrets 
of masonry ; and the only actual gTOund of fear to 
which that association was subjected, is to be found 
in the puerile character of the ceremonies it unfolds. 
They are, in truth, unmeaning in themselves, and 
mere contTivances to prevent the admission of 
the uninitiated, by requiring the remembrance of 
words, signals, and ceremonies, which could not 
easily be compassed or imitated by those who had 
not received the key. It is, however, said by 



DEWITT CLINTON. 279 

some, that this association, deriving its origin from 
the architects of those magnificent temples which 
illustrated the ages called dark, possesses many 
noble and sublime traditions ; that it imbodies the 
mystic knowledge of the Templars, and a tradition- 
ary learning, whose amount may be estimated from 
the contrast which the skill and science displayed 
in those edifices exhibits, when compared wdth 
the ignorance and barbarism of the ages when 
they were erected. Others claim for it a still 
more ancient origin, and trace it to the builders of 
the temples of Egypt, which remain, after the 
lapse of forty centuries, to attest the genius and 
talent of their founders. 

Whatever be its origin, masonry has, beyond a 
doubt, been applied to some of the noblest purpo- 
ses, but may readily be perverted to those of a 
criminal or dangerous character. In our Revolu- 
tionary struggle, its lodges were the places in 
which patriots and statesmen matured schemes of 
resistance to British powder ,* and the calamities of 
war w^ere in more than one instance relieved by 
the feeling of masonic ties. On the Continent of 
Europe they have been the receptacle of the aspi- 
rants for release from the arbitrary power of civil 
rulers and the sanguinary tyranny of a persecuting 
church. The character of a freemason had thus 
become, in Italy, Austria, and Spain, a mark for ,. 
proscription. In Mexico, the two rites of York 



280 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

and Scotland have been made the rallying-points 
of parties in the state. In the United States, initi- 
ation to masonry has, to all appearance, been con- 
ducive to the advancement of political men ; but, 
as it is accessible to both parties, it does not ap- 
pear to have influenced the triumphs or defeats of 
either. 

It is one of the peculiarities of this mysterious 
transaction, that there is little or nothing contain- 
ed in the work of Morgan which had not pre- 
viously been published in England towards the 
close of the last century, without exciting remark. 
Many have, in consequence, imagined that his 
sole object was to make money by the sale of a 
book, which might, to the uninitiated, appear to be 
a revelation of the object of their curiosity, while 
it w^as, in truth, no breach of the oath of secrecy. 

Clinton had become a freemason at an early 
age, and had been elected finally to the highest 
offices of the association. In this capacity, it ap- 
pears from his correspondence, that he was repeat- 
edly applied to for advice as to the obligation of 
the masonic engagement. Replies to such appli- 
cations occur in his letter-book long before the ex- 
citement caused by the disappearance of Morgan 
arose. They are of uniform tenour, and declare 
the masonic covenant to be inferior in obligation to 
the duties of the man, the citizen, and the Chris- 



DEWITT CLINTON. 281 

tian, to which, if found in opposition, it, in his 
opinion, ought in all respects to yield. 

The abduction and probable murder of Morgan 
caused an excitement which can only be regarded at 
the present day as a passionate dream. It was not 
directed against the individuals who had been in- 
strumental in the unhallowed act alone, but ao-ainst 
all the members^ of the society, and was seized 
upon by political aspirants as a means of bringing 
them into notice and raising them to power. To 
the party thus formed Clinton was necessarily ob- 
noxious, from the lofty station he held in the broth- 
erhood. He had, in consequence, a most difficult 
part to play ; for, while his duty as the chief magis- 
trate of the state called upon him to take meas- 
ures for the discovery and apprehension of the of- 
fenders, the sweeping nature of the denunciations, 
and the hostile partisan spirit of which they were 
the expression, w^ere offensive to him as a man, and 
injurious to hira as a politician. He did not, how- 
ever, falter in the strict fulfilment of his duties ; eve- 
ry power of his mind, every prerogative he pos- 
sessed as governor, were called into action for the 
purpose of bringing the offenders to justice ; and 
the anxiety he felt that the supremacy of the law 
should be vindicated, seems to have pressed upon 
his already declining health. On the other hand, 
he could not avoid expressing his surprise, that the 
unauthorized and disavowed acts of a few ill-judg- 

A a2 



282 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

ing persons should be made the grounds of pro- 
scription against all the members of the masonic 
fraternity. 

The sheriff of one of the frontier counties was 
accused of participation in the abduction of Mor- 
gan. The governor forthwith propounded to him 
a series of written interrogatories relative to his 
agency in the transaction, and, on his refusal to 
answer, issued a proclamation removing him from 
office. This person, it is to be recollected, was his 
steadfast friend and political supporter; but he 
would not allow any personal considerations to 
weigh against the public interest. 

In an interview which the removed sheriff 
sought, he said, " Strong as is my attachment to 
you, I will, if you are guilty, exert myself to have 
you punished to the utmost extent of the laws." 
To which the trembling culprit replied, in faltering 
tones, " I have done nothing worthy of chains or 
death." 

It is to be feared that this is the last instance of 
such stern political virtue. The politicians of the 
present day, far from emulating the example of the 
elder Brutus, seem to be willing to screen the crim- 
inal acts of their adherents ; and it is more than 
insinuated, that party devotion has been accepted 
as an excuse for the faithful discharge of the du- 
ties of office, and served as a screen for actual 
malversations. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 283 

The formation of a political party upon the ma- 
sonic question, not only in the State of New- York, 
but in those of Pennsylvania, Vermont, and New- 
Jersey, is not an isolated instance of the avidity 
with which political aspirants seek out any inci- 
dent on which to ground partisan agitation. It is, 
however, of all that have been thus chosen, per- 
haps the most singular, and the least promising to 
lead to any of the desired results. The excitement 
which naturally prevailed in the immediate neigh- 
bourhood where the crime was committed, was 
not of the sort that could be propagated to a great 
distance ; and those who, without feeling it, un- 
dertook to spread it from motives of cool calcula- 
tion, were grievously disappointed, for the diversion 
it caused in the array of parties became the sure 
means of confirming the power of their adversaries. 

When Clinton became a candidate for re-elec- 
tion in 1826, the fact of his being a mason was 
made use of to diminish his popularity. This ar- 
gument had its most powerful effect in the very 
region where his greatest strength lay ; namely, in 
the part of the state west of the Cayuga Lake. 
A formidable coalition was also formed against 
him from materials to all appearance the most dis- 
cordant The old supporters of Mr. Crawford as 
a candidate for the presidency were leagued with 
the adherents of the existing administration, and to 
the latter were added many of the friends of Mr. 



284 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

Clay. The influence of the custom-house and 
that of the canal commissioners were called into 
action to defeat the election of Clinton. Judge 
Rochester was held up by this coalition as a can- 
didate for the office of governor. The opponents 
of Chnton were unable to make any impression on 
his well-merited popularity with the people ; but 
that very popularity was the cause of an over-con- 
fidence on the part of his friends. From these 
causes the vote was so far diminished from that of 
the previous election, that it was estimated that 
from twenty to thirty thousand voters did not 
put in their ballots ; and all of these were persons 
who, had they voted, would have voted for Clinton. 
In spite of this remissness on the part of his friends, 
he was re-elected by a majority of upward of four 
thousand. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 285 



CHAPTER XX. 

Clinton^s views of Religicms Worship, — His Ser^ 
vices to the Presbyterian Education and Bible 
Societies. — His occasional Addresses . — Gi'eat 
change in the Relations of Parties. — Clinton 
recommends the Road through the Southwest- 
em tier of Counties. — His Illness and Death. — 
Political Reflections. — Description of Clinton^s 
Person, and Remarks on his Character. — Illus- 
trations of the importance of his Services in 
promoting the Canal Policy of the State. 

Clinton's early education had been strictly re- 
ligious. The habits of family worship and cate- 
chetical instruction which the first American set- 
tler of the race had brought from the land of his 
forefathers, w^ere maintained by General James 
Clinton. Their faith was, as we have seen, that 
of the Presbyterian Church. In the excitement of 
parties growing out of the French Revolution, 
many of those who were in favour of the alhance 
of the United States with France, and of the dem- 
ocratic party in general, either openly avowed 
principles of infidelity, or silently gave up the 
forms of attendance upon Christian worship. In 
this respect the example of Jefferson was perni- * 



286 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

cious, for his opposition to an established church 
seems to have carried him to the opposite extreme 
of discountenancing all public expression of reli- 
gious feeling. In spite of the intimate political 
connexion of the Clintons with Jefferson, they 
were not tainted either with the feelings of luke- 
warmness or the errors of infidelity. Chnton's 
alliance with a Quaker family in the early part 
of his life, may have rendered him less tenacious 
of the rites which other Christian sects insist upon, 
and which that denomination has rejected ; but of 
the essentials of religion he was, even when press- 
ed by political care and personal anxieties, a reg- 
ular and conscientious observer. While holding 
the office of mayor, his punctual attendance with 
his family on the public services of the Presbyte- 
rian Church not only marked his own belief, but 
served as an example to others. With the vener- 
able Dr. Rodgers, the senior pastor of the associa- 
ted cono;reo-ations of that denomination, and with 
the Rev. Dr. Miller, one of his colleagues, he was 
in habits of close and familiar intimacy j and the 
adhesion of these pious and exemplary men to the 
political party to which Clinton belonged, served 
as a complete refutation of the opinion which 
united the democratic cause with the impious 
principles of the French Jacobins. 

On his removal to Albany, the same attention 
to the external forms of religion was manifest, 



DEWITT CLINTON. 287 

and he became a communicant of the Presbyteri- 
an Church. In the conflict of rival creeds, the 
several sects must look to the influence and char- 
acter of their lay members as the proof of the be- 
nign influence of their tenets, and as the temporal 
support of their principles. The Presbyterian 
Church, in consequence, prided itself, at least as 
much as such pride in spiritual matters is war- 
ranted, in the possession of Clinton as a member, 
and he, in return, rendered it important services. 

Of the numerous and munificent charities of the 
Presbyterian Church, that which is intended to pro- 
vide for the education of poor and pious young 
men for its ministry is perhaps the most benefi- 
cial in its influences. In the ever-growing popu- 
lation of our country, the means of religious in- 
struction have in general been behind the increase 
of numbers, and always in arrear of the exten- 
sion of our settlements. The Presbyterian Church, 
holding that the days of inspiration are past, makes 
a sound education, and proficiency in human knowl- 
edge, preliminaries to the reception of its ordina- 
tion. In this it has acted with temporal wisdom, 
as well as with sound views of the spiritual benefit 
of its members. Nothing is so likely to bring re- 
ligion into contempt as ignorance on the part of 
those who assume to be its teachers. Zeal ^vith- 
out knowledge is almost certain to run into fanat- 
ical excess ; and the exposition of Christian doc- 



288 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

trine requires, in the absence of the supernatural 
gifts which distinguished the early age of the 
church, no small extent of classical learning. 
The rapid improvements of science are continually 
renewing the question how far its discoveries are 
consistent with the real truths of revelation. An- 
tiquated interpretations of texts have been found- 
ed on ancient theories in physics, which modern 
improvements have exploded. The scoffer has 
taken advantage of such apparent contradiction, 
and has applied it to the propagation of infidel 
doctrines. The churchman who shall neglect to 
become acquainted with scientific principles, and 
to watch the progress of physical knowledge, 
may, in the arguments which the unlimited free- 
dom of discussion that the institutions of our coun- 
try so wisely and fortunately admit of, become 
involved in a dilemma which, to the uninformed 
and unrefliecting, may be the foundation of infidel 
opinions. All are aware of the injury which was 
done to the Christian belief of many anxious in- 
quirers, by the pertinacious opposition of over- 
zealous churchmen to the discoveries of geology, 
which, although for a time rejected by them, are 
supported by such in-efragable evidence, that no 
one who inquires can possibly refuse his assent. 

It is also of vast importance that a large pro- 
portion of the teachers of religion should be taken 
firom among those in moderate circiunstances, or 



DEWITT CLINTON. 289 

even in poverty. The habits of those who are 
reared among the more opulent classes of society, 
particularly when united with those formed in 
scholastic institutions, are a bad preparation for 
the hardships and privations of a frontier settle- 
ment ; while the spiritual welfare of the people is 
generally best promoted by a pastor who can en- 
ter into the feelings and unite in the society of his 
parishioners. 

Of the Education Society, founded to promote 
such objects in the Presbyterian Church, Clinton 
was a valuable and useful member, and held for 
several years the office of vice-president. 

While he thus manifested his preference for the 
form of worship preferred by his forefathers, he 
was influenced by no feelings of sectarian bigotry. 
The mere forms of worship, and even dilTerences 
in tenets, he regarded as unimportant, so far as the 
public was concerned, provided the religion pro- 
fessed produced its proper influence on the life and 
morals. 

Of the institutions of human origin, that which 
has tended in the highest degree to extend the 
knowledge of the Christian faith in distant lands, 
and to enlarge its influence in our own, is the 
Bible Society. Of this inestimable institution 
Clinton was one of the first officers, and held for 
some years previous to his death the office of a 
vice-president 

Bb 



290 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

In addition to his numerous reports on subjects 
of national interest, his speeches to the Legisla- 
ture, and the many laws of which he furnished the 
draughts, Clinton was, as we have seen, a distin- 
guished writer on scientific subjects. He also 
wrote and delivered many occasional addresses. 
Of these we may cite, in high terms of commenda- 
tion, his eulogy on Fulton and Livingston, and his 
orations before the alumni of Columbia and Union 
Colleges. These addresses form, as has been well 
remarked, the most peculiar feature of American 
literature, from their vast number and general 
ability. In accepting the invitations to deliver 
such addresses, Clinton was brought into direct 
contrast, not with the politicians and statesmen 
so much as with the most eminent literary and 
scientific men of the age and country. It is 
enough for his reputation to say that he did not 
suffer in his character as a writer by this com- 
parison. 

Clinton's accession to the office of governor by 
re-election in 1827 was attended with a most sin- 
gular revolution among politicians. His ancient 
opponents had been divided into two parties, one 
of which, after having supported Mr. Crawford as 
a candidate for the presidency, had united with 
the friends of General Jackson ; the other sustain- 
ed the policy of the administration of Mr. Adams. 
Chnton had felt a preference for General Jackson, 



DEWITT CLINTON. 291 

although he had taken no active part in the elec- 
tion, which terminated in the choice of Mr. Adams. 
The acts of the office-holders of the general gov- 
ernment and of the personal friends of Mr. Ad- 
ams left him no alternative but to avow his pref- 
erence, and he was thus placed in the position of 
a leader, and the most prominent personage of a 
party which was, in a great measure, made up of 
his most constant and bitter opponents. On the 
other hand, the masonic question had resulted in the 
organization of a party, many of whose members 
were drawn from among the most steady support- 
ers of his policy, which was opposed to the elec- 
tion of Jackson. 

The triumph which speedily followed in the 
election of General Jackson to the presidency, ap- 
peared to open new views of ambition to Clinton. 
It was generally believed that the new president 
would have called him to a distinguished position 
in his cabinet, and that Chnton would not, on this 
occasion, have declined the invitation. In this 
station he would have been placed as the most 
prominent candidate for the succession. 7'his new 
opportunity for the exercise of his talents in the 
services of his country was not vouchsafed him. 
It might be a matter of curious speculation to 
conjecture how far the acceptance by Clinton to 
a place in the cabinet would have influenced the 
course of General Jackson's administration; and 



292 AMERICAN BIOOKAPHT. 

how long two men, equally determined in the sup- 
port of the measures they considered to be proper, 
could have remained in amicable relations. It can 
now he seen that many of the measures oi Gen- 
eral Jackson's administration were in opposition 
to the avowed opinions of Clinton, while m others 
he would have cordially united. 

He would probably, also, have striven to moder- 
ate the excessive zeal by which principles m them- 
selves correct were carried by that energetic man 
beyond the verge of expediency ; and there can 
be little doubt that he would have been able to 
exercise an influence for good, which was po^ess- 
ed by none of his subsequent advisers. _ Such 
speculations are, however, futile ; for it is now 
known that he had determined to dechne office 
under the new administration, not, as he said, from 
any want of regard to General Jackson, but be- 
cause he considered his station as governor of 
New-York by the election of the people more 
honourable than any appointment in the gift of 

the general government. ^ . , ^ • iro? 

Ctinton's message to the Legislature m 1827 
contains the announcement of the final and com- 
plete triumph of the canal pohcy of he state 
He had the gratification to announce that the tolls 
of the preceding year had amounted to seven hun- 
dred and seventy thousand dollars, or to near^ 
twice the amount of the interest on the debt con- 



DEWITT CLINTON. 29b 

tracted for the construction of the canals; while 
the whole revenue of the fund amounted to up- 
ward of a million. With this decided proof of 
the success of internal improvements conducted on 
the part of the state, Clinton presses upon the Le- 
gislature the propriety of aiding in other under- 
takings, and, in some instances, of assuming them 
for the public account. He more particularly re- 
fers to the projected road through the southwestern 
tier of counties. In respect to this, he declares 
that he is willing to encounter his full share of the 
responsibility of the measure he recommends. 

Among other important points in this message, 
he recommends corrections in the criminal code, 
and gives instances where it is of an oppressive 
and unjust character, as well as unequal in its op- 
eration. 

Of these recommendations, that in relation to 
the road through the southwestern counties is the 
most important. Investigations held subsequently, 
and the improvements made in the construction 
of railroads, have satisfied the parties interested in 
this improvement that it can be better eifected by 
means of a railway than by a common road. In 
this view of the subject Clinton would in all 
probability have concurred ; and there can be no 
doubt that he would have urged with all his in- 
fluence the construction of this railroad by the 

state. The Legislature has been of a different 

Bb2 



294 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

opinion, and the construction of the road has been 
intrusted to an incorporated company. All the 
evils which Clinton anticipated from this act have 
followed. The probable profits are not sufficient 
to attract a sufficient amount of capital ; the stock, 
although subscribed, has not been paid up ; and the 
project must either be abandoned, or the state must 
assume the responsibiUty of constructing it. 

In the summer of 1827 Clinton made a tour 
through Connecticut, and parts of the states of 
New-Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts. He 
was received throughout not only with the distinc- 
tion due to his rank as governor of the State of 
New-York, but with the enthusiasm excited by his 
services in the cause of internal improvement. 
While it was impossible that any feeling could 
exist in these states at all approaching to the re- 
gard and gratitude with which he was regarded 
by many of the citizens of New-York, he, on the 
other hand, was spared the pain of meeting those 
who looked upon him as an obstacle to their plans 
of partisan aggrandizement. His journey was 
therefore attended with unmingled feelings of 

gratification. 

Towards the close of the same year Clinton 
was attacked by a disorder to all appearance 
slight. It, however, resisted all the efforts of med- 
icine, and finally deprived him of life. In conse- 
quence of the incapacity for taking the quantity 



DEWITT CLINTON. 295 

of exercise to which he had been previously ac- 
customed, his hfe had become in a great measure 
sedentary, and his constitution no longer possessed 
the power of throwing off the causes which might 
produce disease. The form of a mere cold, which 
the disorder at first assumed, appeared to furnish 
no cause for anxiety ; but it pressed upon him by 
slow and insidious steps. The powers of his mind 
hardly appear to have been affected; and, while 
he sustained some feelings of bodily uneasiness, he 
was yet able to apply himself to his official duties. 
Among the very last events of his life is a letter 
addressed to one of the circuit judges, in reference 
to an act that came properly within his cognizance 
as governor, which is distinguished by all the 
clearness and ability of his most vigorous days. 

The disorder took the form of a dropsy of the 
chest, affecting in an especial degree the heart 
and lungs. His death was without warning, and 
while his friends anticipated no immediate danger. 
It took place on the 11th of February, 1828, in 
the presence of his eldest son, who acted as his 
private secretary. He had taken a drive in the 
morning, visited the Capitol, and transacted busi- 
ness as usual. In the afternoon he wrote up his 
diary, and perused all the letters received by the 
evening mails, and was thus engaged until within 
a few minutes of his death. 

Although his danger was not feared by his fam- 



296 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

ily, he himself was fully aware of the approach 
of his last hour. His friend Dr. Hosack, who, 
while he resided in New-York, had been his phy- 
sician, visited him in Albany, and felt it his duty 
to communicate how precarious his position was, 
and that his disease must soon terminate fatally. 
Sustained by a well-founded religious belief, and 
the consciousness of a well-spent life, he replied 
that he " was not afraid to die," and the porten- 
tous announcement produced no apparent change 
in his cheerfulness, or alteration in his attention to 
the public business. 

His countenance underwent no change in death ; 
there was no struggle or convulsion ; the colour 
of his cheeks was unchanged ; and his departure 
was as quiet as if he had dropped asleep. 

The death of no person ever produced a greater 
and more general expression of sorrow through- 
out the whole state, and in a great portion of the 
Union. 

The feelings of party animosity, which had pur- 
sued him through life, and which had not altogeth- 
er abated, ceased at once. All classes, ranks, and 
factions joined in deploring his loss, at the mo- 
ment when his services were as much needed as 
they had ever been, and when he appeared to be 
more than ever capable of rendering them. The 
citizens, in public meetings in all the cities of the 
state J the Legislature, which was in session at the 



DEWITT CLINTON. 297 

time, and the municipal corporations, united in the 
expression of a heartfelt sorrow. 

The history of Clinton imbodies that of the par- 
ties which have agitated the State of New-York 
from the close of the war of the Revolution. The 
existence of two opposing factions seems to be in- 
separable from the nature of a free government, and 
their balance may be almost essential to its exist- 
ence. Furious as have been the contests in words, 
and inveterate as have been the personal hostili- 
ties that have in some cases been generated, it is 
a favourable augury for the stability of our insti- 
tutions, that, since the adoption of the federal Con- 
stitution, no question has been agitated having any 
real bearing upon the great principles on which 
the government is founded. The long contest of 
the federal and democratic parties was grounded 
in a great degree upon foreign policy, however 
loudly the one party was charged with maintain- 
ing aristocratic, and the other of a tendency to dis- 
organizing principles. Since that time, personal 
preferences, and the contest for places of emolu- 
ment, have been, in general, the springs of political 
action. It has thus happened, that, from the mo- 
ment the old federal party fell to pieces, the dis- 
tinctions of party have ceased ; and the same men 
have been seen alternately caressed and proscribed 
by the coalition calling themselves the old dem- 
ocratic party. It has been no agreeable task to 



298 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

hunt up the records of poUtical changes. CUnton 
was by them made, as has been seen, alternately 
the idol and the proscribed of the dominant party ; 
and in it have figured his ancient federal opponents, 
as well as his original democratic alhes. For him- 
self, he was separated at an early period from the 
mass of politicians, who pursue their vocation prin- 
cipally for the purpose of their own aggrandize- 
ment. One favourite object, the improvement of 
the internal navigation of the state, furnished him 
with a mark for his aspirations which distinguish- 
ed him from the vulgar herds of faction. No man 
was a warmer and more active partisan than him- 
self ; but his most violent denunciations of his op- 
ponents had one redeeming quality — they were in- 
tended to aid in the triumph of the policy whence 
the state has received so much benefit. 

In the warmth of his political feelings he not un- 
frequently committed the mistake of supposing those 
who opposed him from personal feelings, or in the 
hope of acquiring ascendency from his downfall, 
to be influenced by motives of less creditable de- 
scription; while, on the other hand, he in some 
instances overrated the capacity of those who re- 
mained his steadfast friends both in good and evil 
report. The warmth of his temperament, which 
made him a strenuous friend, or an active but 
generous enemy, rendered him at times the advo- 
cate of those who little merited his support, and 



DEWITT CLINTON. 299 

placed him in active opposition to some who, from 
similarity of views on the great question of inter- 
nal improvement, were fitted to be the most use- 
ful partisans of the measures in which he took so 
strong an interest. 

Clinton's person, in his youth and early manhood, 
was remarkable for its masculine beauty, and, as 
years advanced, assumed a majestic character. His 
stature was upward of six feet, straight, and finely 
proportioned. His eyes were a dark hazel, ap- 
proaching to black, and highly expressive ; his 
hair brown ; his complexion clear, and more florid 
than usual among Americans ; his teeth fine, giv- 
ing a peculiar grace to his smile ; his nose slightly 
aquiline. His habits of reflection and close study 
were marked in the ordinary expression of his 
countenance, which, controlled at an early period 
of his life to the gravity becoming the magistrate 
and the senator, presented an appearance of se- 
riousness almost approaching to austerity. When 
speaking in public, however, his face expressed, 
with the utmost flexibility, the varying emotions to 
which his words gave vent ; while in the inter- 
course of private life and in familiar conversation, 
the gravity, which rested on his features when not 
excited, gave w^ay on occasion to playfulness and 
mirth. 

His portraits, which were painted by many of 
our best artists, and his bust by Brouwere, exhibit, 



300 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

in almost all cases, the expression of gravity and 
reflection. They thus give little idea of the more 
agreeable lineaments of his countenance. 

He was as exemplary in his private relations as 
he was distinguished in public life — a good and 
affectionate husband ; a kind and judicious father ; 
a friend who in many cases sacrificed his own in- 
terests in order to benefit those who were faithful 
to him. No shade of suspicion, in all the vitupera- 
tion which was showered on him by political ad- 
versaries, was ever cast on his moral character. 

Although reserved in his manner in mixed so- 
cieties, he was playful, sportive, and cheerful in 
his intercourse with his children, kind, and of the 
most even temper. Hence his absence was always 
regretted by them, and his return welcomed with 
demonstrations of joy. 

He was an early riser, and generally despatched 
his correspondence, which was often voluminous, 
before he breakfasted. He thus had the remain- 
der of the day at his disposal ; and, while laborious 
to an extent equalled by few even of professional 
men, had the appearance of almost perfect leisure 
during the ordinary hours of business. Hence, 
while holding official stations, he was always ac- 
cessible ; and the crowd of visiters which he ad- 
mitted did not intrench on the strict performance 
of his duties. 

It is one of the most remarkable features in his 



DEWITT CLINTON. 301 

career, that he Avas never defeated in any election 
when the question was submitted directly to the 
people. The only instance in which he was an 
unsuccessful candidate for an elective office was 
that in which he was opposed to Madison as an 
aspirant for the presidency; and, although there is 
little probability that the result would have been 
affected by a vote not conveyed through the elec- 
toral colleges, the proposition is true to the letter. 

On this occasion he may have departed from 
his usual prudent plan of weighing well the 
chances before he submitted his pretensions to the 
people; but there were causes at work which jus- 
tify his course, if brought to no other test than that 
of political expediency. His uncle had a short 
time before become aware of a project, entertained 
by the administration at Washington, for dismem- 
bering the State of New-York, and disappointed 
politicians were named who were to have been 
the willing instruments of this suicidal act. It 
therefore became necessary to show that the dem- 
ocratic party to the North was not in all respects 
subservient to the policy of Virginia, w^hich viewed 
the rising greatness of New-York with distrust 
and jealousy. 

This fact in relation to Clinton's uniform suc- 
cess whenever he came before the public as can- 
didate for an elective office, would appear to jus- 
tify his declared confidence in the ultimate judg- 

Cc 



302 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

ment of the majority. With this strong convic- 
tion, he appears never to have considered what 
would be the temporary effect of his measures, 
but only whether they were right in themselves, 
and calculated to promote the general prosperity; 
' satisfied that, when the mists of prejudice in 
which they might be involved by their opponents 
had cleared away, his motives would be appre- 
ciated and his conduct approved. It thus hap- 
pened more than once in his political life, that 
the outcry raised against him and his measures 
became so great that he appeared to have lost 
all favour with the public ; and yet, no sooner had 
time for reflection been allowed, than he w^as ele- 
vated to the highest ofhce in the people's gift. 
On these occasions he retired from the strife of 
party until time had been allowed for the cool 
judgment of the majority to be formed, and, to 
the surprise of his opponents, returned anew to 
the political arena, and carried all before him. 

Whatever errors in principle or practice he may 
have committed, his motives were alw^ays pure, 
and directed, not to the attainment of a temporary 
popularity, but to the great end of the public 
good. With more of flexibility, he might have 
escaped the political reverses he experienced, but 
he never could have risen with such irresistible 
strength as he exhibited in the elections of 1818 
and 1826. 



DEWITT CLINTON. 303 

Violent as were the contests in which he was 
occasionally engaged, they seem never to have 
produced any rankling in his mind ; and even those 
who had been the instrmiients of actual or mtend- 
ed injury, were readily forgiven whenever they 
saw and acknowledged that they had been m 
error. His conduct seems to have been governed 
by the Roman maxim of pohcy, '^parcere suhjedis, 
et dehdlare siiperhos.''' 

We may cite, as an illustration of this feature 
of his character, his conduct to Gould and Ward. 
This bookselling firm had become the publishers 
of a pamphlet which was libellous upon his char- 
acter, and his indignation was so much excited as 
to induce him to threaten a prosecution. No 
sooner, however, had they become sensible that 
they had been made the instruments of a false 
and malicious charge, and expressed their regret 
at the want of caution they had exhibited, than he 
dropped all proceedings and freely forgave them. 
Numerous as were the attacks made upon hmi 
through the medium of the press, there was but 
one o'ther instance in which he contemplated an 
appeal to a legal tribunal in vindication of his 
character. This was a case growing out of the 
antimasonic excitement. In the last year of his 
life he was charged with having, in his masomc 
capacity, sanctioned the outrage committed on 
Morgan. The charge was so entirely destitute of 



304 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

any foundation, that the hbeller saw that there 
was no hope for justification. He therefore threw 
himself on the mercy of CUnton, and admitted the 
falsehood of the accusation. In this instance also 
he refrained from farther prosecution, although it 
is clear that he must have recovered ample dama- 
ges. His only purpose was the vindication of his 
fame, and, that accomplished, he saw no object in 
persisting in the suit. 

In this, as in many other cases, he showed an 
indifference to money. He had, in fact, no dis- 
position to accumulate pecuniary fortune, and 
exhibited no talent for money-making. In the 
hands of one who would have made wealth his 
great object of pursuit, his patrimonial inheritance 
and the portion of his first wife might have been 
the basis of a great accumulation of property, 
while the opportunities for advantageous invest- 
ment opened to him in his office of canal commis- 
sioner might, in hands less pure, have been the 
source of unbounded riches. In spite of these op- 
portunities, he died in honourable poverty, and 
even the plate presented to him by the merchants 
of New-York was exposed for sale after his death. 

His charities were abundant; and there were 
instances, when compelled by a sense of dut}' to 
refuse the petition of a mother or wife for the 
pardon of a son or a husband, that he gave from 
his own purse the means of repairing, in some de- 



DEWITT CLINTON. 305 

gree, the distress growing out of the conviction of 
the criminal relative. 

Enough of time has elapsed since his death to 
make the opinions now held of him almost tanta- 
mount to the judgment of posterity. If a few of 
his ancient opponents remain, who cannot divest 
themselves of the opinions derogatory to his char- 
acter which they once in sincerity entertained; 
and if there be others who cannot consistently dis- 
avow the expressions they uttered in the heat of 
party debate ; the generation which is now rising, 
without a dissenting voice, awards to him the 
praise due to an enlightened and energetic magis- 
trate, a learned and impartial judge, an honest 
and patriotic politician, a dignified administrator 
of the government. More than all, no voice is 
now raised to question the important share he 
took in originating, carrying forward, and com- 
pleting the policy to which the Erie and Cham- 
plain Canals are due, while few hesitate in ascri- 
bing to him so great a degree of merit in the ad- 
vancement of this policy, as to sink the services of 
all other persons into comparative insignificance. 

However meritorious may have been the servi- 
ces of the subordinate agents in any great event, 
history rarely records any but the chief performer. 
We speak of the conquests of Alexander and the 
victories of Caesar, without reference to the thou- 
sands of gallant soldiers and hundreds of skilful 

Cc2 



306 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 

officers who aided in those exploits, and we com- 
mit no injustice ; for, if led by men of less genius, 
the valour of the one and the tactics of the other 
might not have saved them from defeat. 

When we contemplate the finished statue, we 
think not of the labourers who have torn the mar- 
ble mass from the quarry, nor even of the skilful 
workmen who have chiselled down its superfluous 
parts to an approach to the figure of the clay 
model in which the master artist has imbodied 
his vivid thoughts ; but to that artist who has re- 
served to himself no more than the final touches, 
we ascribe the merit of the performance. And so 
of the majestic temples of the Christian faith ; the 
architect receives all our praises or undergoes our 
criticisms, to the exclusion of all who have been 
employed in the construction. When Michael 
Angelo uttered the sublime thought, " I will raise 
the Pantheon on the Temple of Peace," he im- 
printed a character on the basilic of St. Peter's 
which the mistakes and bad taste of his success- 
ors could not impair. 

To descend to arts more strictly mechanic : we 
never inquire, w^hen we read the name of an Ar- 
nold on a chronometer, or of a Breguest on a 
watch, through what a multitude of hands the 
several parts of the instruments have passed, for 
we know that these great workmen have impress- 
ed their own style of working on the crude form 



DEWITT CLINTON. 



307 



in which they have received them from the manu- 
facturers, and have combined the accessories fur- 
nished by others in such manner as no other could 
have identically accomplished. 

Such exactly is the relation which Clinton holds 
towards the canal system of the State of New- 
York. He is the chief under whose guidance the 
political battle for its erection was fought; the 
artist who gave form and shape to the laws by 
which it was enacted, and the system of finance 
by which it was upheld ; he was not the first to 
discern the practicability of the Erie route, but he 
drew the argument by which its superiority over 
the less expensive course to Oswego was demon- 
strated ; finally, he was for fourteen years, from 
the time when the canals were first projected, until 
their success was beyond all possibility of doubt, 
the point in which all communications, partial ex- 
aminations, and useful hints centred, and whence 
they were promulgated to the public under the 
sanction of his authority, adorned by the graces 
of h^s diction, and improved by the accuracy of his 
judgment. Foreign nations, anticipating the ver- 
dict of posterity, connect no other name but that 
of Clinton with the Canals of the State of New- 
York ; and posterity itself will, beyond all ques- 
tion, elevate him in like manner above all others 
who have in any way aided in organizing and 
completing our canal system. 



APPENDIX. 



De Witt Clinton to Governor George Clinton. 

Washington, January 11th, 1803. 
Dear Sir : 

The pubHc mind is much agitated, and the public interests 
are deeply imphcated, by the infraction of the treaty by the 
Spanish intendant of New-Orleans in withdrawing that place as 
a depositary for American produce coming down the Missis- 
sippi, without assigning any equivalent establishment. I shall 
present you with a brief statement of this transaction so far as 
it is interesting, and so far as I have obtained correct informa- 
tion. Independently of other inducements for making this com- 
munication, you must be apprized that the city of New- York 
now actually commands, and will, according to every calculation 
of probability, continue to command, the greatest part of the 
New-Orleans, or, rather, the Mississippi trade; that during the 
last year two hundred and thirty American vessels were em- 
ployed in it ; that this commerce will accumulate with the ex- 
tension of our western settlements, and that, therefore, the Span- 
ish proceedings are calculated to inflict an injury upon our trade, 
the magnitude of which is at present beyond calculation. 

The following facts, connected with and respecting this busi- 
ness, are, I believe, accurate. 

1st. That the act of the intendant was contrary to the wishes 
of the governor. 

2d. That the authority of the intendant, in relation to the fiscal 
and commercial concerns of the colony, is independent of that of 
the governor. 

3d. That the intendant is a man of no influence at court, and 



310 APPENDIX. 

has grown rich from a very low origin ; and that his proceedings 
are, in all probability, intended to increase his wealth by their 
subserviency to a commercial speculation. 

4th. That the court of Madrid has not, in any shape, author- 
ized his conduct. 

5th. That Louisiana, in the Spanish as well as the French 
acceptation, comprehends not only the country on the west side 
of the Mississippi as far as Mexico, but New-Orleans and the 
Floridas. 

6lh. That this country is comprised in one government and 
one intendancy under the denomination of Louisiana. 

7th. That, by the treaty of Amiens, Louisiana was ceded to 
France. That the British minister gave to Mr. King a copy of 
the treaty which contained this cession ; but that, in the whole 
course of the negotiation for peace, the British abstained from 
putting a direct interrogatory on this subject. 

8th. That it is not ascertained whether the French mean to 
take possession of the ceded country ; and, if they intend it, the 
time when is of course a profound secret. 

9ih. That the Spanish minister here immediately sent an ex- 
press by water to New-Orleans, remonstrating against the pro- 
ceedings of the intendant, and advising their discontinuance; 
that, although he has no control over the intendant, there is a 
very great probability that his advice will be attended to ; that, 
if it is not, the minister will enforce it emphatically upon his 
own responsibility, and that our government also sent an express 
by land charged to the same effect. 

10th. That it is the prevalent opinion here, that it is essential 
to the prevention of future interruption of our western com- 
merce, and the preservation of the peace of the Union, that the 
country on the left bank of the Mississippi and east of that 
should belong to us, and that there are two modes of accom- 
plishing this object — purchase and force, and that the former 
ought to be first tried. 

11th. Under this impression the president has this day nomi- 
nated R. R. Livingston minister plenipotentiary, and Jame^ 



APPENDIX. 311 

Monroe, late governor of Virginia, minister extraordinary and 
plenipotentiary, to treat with the First Consul conjointly " for 
the purpose of enlarging and more effectually securing our rights 
and interests in the river Mississippi and the territories east- 
ward of it ;" but as Spain is still in possession of the country, 
the like powers, in the same capacity and for the same objects, 
are intrusted, in case it should be necessary to exercise them, to 
Mr. Monroe, in conjunction with our present minister at Madrid. 
By the rules of the Senate, these nominations cannot be con- 
sidered until to-morrow. They will undoubtedly be confirmed. 
The Legislature of Maryland have passed spirited resolutions 
upon the subject of the shutting up of the Mississippi, which 
will probably be followed by the other states. You will at once 
perceive that part of this communication is intended to be pri- 
vate ; but I thought it best to give you a view of the whole 
ground, so that you may judge of the expediency of drawing the 
attention of our Legislature to this subject, as our citizens are 
greatly interested in it, and I am certain that this measure will 
be very acceptable to the republican interests of the Union. 
You have no doubt witnessed the attempts made in the Morning 
Chronicle and federal papers, under the appearance of exclusive 
zeal for our national rights, to produce a war immediately with 
a view to embarrass our financial arransrements and overthrow 
the administration. A suitable mention of this subject, in a 
general view of the affairs of the nation, will therefore have a 
great tendency to confound these insidious attempts. 



De Witt Clinton to James Madison. 

New-York, July 1st, 1804. 
Dear Sir : 
I have the honour of acknowledging your letter of the 25th 
of June and its enclosures. I should have answered it imme- 
diately, but I was anxious to obtain some documents which 
would throw further light on the subject of it, and these I could 
not procure until yesterday- 



312 APPENDIX. 

The attorney of the district will in a few days inform you of 
the proceedings which have taken place on account of the viola- 
tion of the revenue laws. No coercive process has been issued 
under the authority of the state, for reasons arising from a de- 
fect of jurisdiction, which I shall hereafter explain to you. 

In my communication of the 19th, I gave you the general out- 
lines of the proceedings in relation to the rule of twenty-four 
hours. In order to evince the frivolous nature of Mr. Merry's 
complaint on that subject, and to demonstrate that his charge of 
partiality is totally groundless and unjustifiable, I shall now pre- 
sent to you a more detailed statement of facts, and make a few 
remarks which naturally arise from them. 

The French frigates had been in this port about two weeks, 
and it was well known and understood that they intended to 
proceed without delay to the place of their destination. The 
British vessels of war arrived here on the 16th of June, and on 
the 17th (subsequent to the aggressions, but previous to my 
knowledge of them) I addressed the letter relative to the usage 
of twenty-four hours to the British consul-general. It could not 
have been supposed that the British vessels intended, for any 
legitimate object, to depart from the port almost as soon as they 
had entered it. If this had been their design, they certainly 
would not have approached so near to the city. The probable 
supposition was, that information had been sent from this place 
to Halifax of the arrival of the French frigates ; that the British 
vessels had hastened here to reconnoitre them ; to watch their 
movements, and to follow them out of our jurisdiction for hostile 
purposes. As my letter to Colonel Barclay was in consequence 
of a communication from General Rey recognising the rule, 
it could not have been necessary to notify the latter of it, espe- 
cially as there was not the remotest reason to suspect that the 
French vessels would follow the British ones out of this port. 

The next morning I received an official account of the out- 
rages committed at the Quarantine Ground. In the afternoon of 
that day I received Colonel Barclay's letter, of which I sent you 
a copy, marked No. 5. By referring to it, you will find that it is 



APPENDIX. 3 13 

extremely disingenuous and evasive It does not appear from 
it that he had communicated my request to the British com- 
manders. It did not announce any views or intentions of theirs 
in consequence of that request. It did not take the ground now 
assumed by Mr. Merry. Nor did it stipulate that the British 
vessels should not pursue the French ones within twenty-four 
hours after their departure, or recognise any obligation on their 
part to comply with the rule in any sense whatever. On the 
contrary, it appeared from it that the intentions of the British 
admiral were to be paramount to the law of nations. Nor could 
it well escape my observation, that the declared object of the 
visit of the British vessels was not the real one ; that if it had 
been the delivery of despatches, as pretended, it could have 
been fully effected by their remaining out of the port, and send- 
ing a boat up to the city ; that it was not reasonable to suppose 
two vessels of war would be sent for the purpose of conveying 
communications to a consular agent ; and the mention of taking 
directions from Mr. Merry on the subject could be contem- 
plated in no other light than as an implied refusal to comply 
with my request in any shape, because, in all probability, his 
answer could not arrive in season. 

Combining Colonel Barclay's answer with the considerations 
which I have mentioned, and more particularly with the aggres- 
sions at the Quarantine Ground, I had no doubt but that the 
British commander would proceed in his career of atrocity, and 
I considered it my duty to deprive him of the means as far as 
lay in my power. Under these impressions, I wrote the letter 
heretofore transmitted, and marked No. 8, to the wardens of the 
port. It is predicated upon, and distinctly states the belief, 
" that the Cambrian and Driver, vessels of war of Great Britain, 
will endeavour to violate the laws of nations by sailing from this 
port shortly after the French frigates," &c. Although it does 
not expressly mention the outrages at the Quarantine Ground 
as an inducement to the direction, yet the words having rea- 
son to believe will sufficiently indicate that they were present to 
my mind ; and I can truly declare, that if those aggressions had 

Dd 



314 APPENDIX. 

not been committedj the order would not have been issued. I 
also thought it expedient to obtain from Colonel Barclay a 
more explicit declaration of the views of the British commander, 
and I accordingly wrote to him the letter marked No. 6, here- 
tofore forwarded. If the British commander really contempla- 
ted to observe the rule, by not pursuing the French frigates out 
of our jurisdiction, Colonel Barclay would certainly have de- 
clared that intention in his answer to which I refer you. It 
will appear from it that he was satisfied with the propriety of 
my request, for he states that he desired Captain Bradley to 
comply if in his power : and I had no reason to suppose from 
it that the British vessels intended to leave the port prior lo the 
French. It says, indeed, " I take it for granted, the ships are 
now on their way to the Hook." As the Hook is that part of 
our jurisdiction nearest to the ocean, all I could infer from this 
information was, that the British vessels have repaired there in 
order to facilitate their egress in pursuit of the French. The 
letter from Captain Bradley, said to be enveloped in Colonel 
Barclay's, was never received by me. Supposing this, at the 
time, to be a mistake, I mentioned it to him, and he promised to 
send me a copy, which he has not complied with, for reasons 
best known to himself. 

The principal ground of complaint appears to be, that the 
British intended to depart from this port immediately ; that they 
were entitled to depart, if they could gain the ocean previous to 
the French ; and that they were prevented from departing by 
the recall of the pilots. The pilots left the vessel on the 19th ; 
on the next day they were permitted to rejoin them,- which they 
accordingly did ; and yet the Cambrian and Boston have not 
sailed, but continue stationed near the mouth of the port, 
while the Driver is cruising off the Hook. Tho allegation, 
then, upon which this pretended grievance is founded, is com- 
pletely falsified. The affidavit of Rowland R. Crocher, No. 1, 
will indicate new aggressions committed on a vessel coming in 
to this port ; and that of Robert Bennett, No. 2, will show that 
the Boston endeavoured to intercept an American brig, named 



APPENDIX. 315 

the Pallas, in her egress from this port, with the probable design 
of capturing certain distinguished French citizens who were 
supposed to have taken their passage in her. The fact is, our 
port is completely blockaded against the admission or departure 
of French vessels. There can be no doubt but the British 
frigates will pursue and capture all French vessels leaving the 
port, without any regard to the law of nations or our neutral 
rights. Instead, therefore, of complaining that they have been 
deprived of pilots for two days, they ought to be thankful for 
our forbearance in allowing them any, after the daring outrages 
which they have committed and continue to commit. 

On the 26th of December last, an application was made to 
me by Richard J. Tucker, at the instance of the British consul- 
general, to detain in this port the French armed schooner 
L'Ocean, upon account of the intended departure of two British 
merchantmen ; and, on the 19th of January, a similar application 
was made by the consul-general in behalf of another. The 
papers marked from No. 3 to No. 8 inclusive, contain the ap- 
plications and the subsequent proceedings ; and in demonstra- 
ting that a similar conduct was adopted at the request of British 
agents, and in favour of British vessels in respect to the rule of 
twenty-four hours, as has been pursued in the case now com- 
plained of, they abundantly refute the charge of impartiality. 
Any measures in these cases to enforce the rule, were rendered 
unnecessary by the annunciation of a determination to comply 
with it. 

I also transmit an affidavit of John White, marked No. 9, 
which proves that the captain of the Cambrian was made ac- 
quainted with our Quarantine law, and that he knowingly vio- 
lated it. 

Since writing the above^ I am told the Boston went out of 
port yesterday, and probably on a cruise off the Hook. 



316 APPENDIX. 



De Witt Clinton to Thomas Willing. 

New-York, August 4th, 1804. 
Dear Sir : 

I avail myself of an early opportunity since my return to this 
city, of acknowledging the communication subscribed by you in 
behalf of the citizens of Philadelphia, Southwark, and the North- 
ern Liberties, in relation to the melancholy death of General 
Hamilton. 

The unsullied integrity, transcendant talents, and eminent 
services of this great man, are universally acknowledged and 
duly appreciated by all descriptions of persons here ; and al- 
though a large majority of the citizens of this place are decidedly 
attached to the wise and patriotic administration which so hap- 
pily presides over the affairs of the Union, and were, of course, 
opposed to General Hamilton in political opinions, yet on this 
occasion we all cordially unite in deploring an event which has 
deprived our country of one of the most distinguished of her 
citizens, and which, although at all times a public misfortune, 
must be considered peculiarly so at the present crisis, when we 
reflect on his zealous and honourable attachment to the union of 
the states, and consider the disorganizing schemes which, there 
is too much reason to apprehend, are m agitation to destroy this 
palladium of our national safety, this guarantee of our national 
glory. 

The virtuous sensibility manifested by the citizens of Phila- 
delphia, Southwark, and the Northern Liberties is highly hon- 
ourable to them, as well as to the memory of the deceased, and 
has made a deep impression upon our minds. In presenting 
you and them the warmest acknowledgment for your sincere 
and heartfelt condolence, I am persuaded that I faithfully com- 
municate the sense of my fellow-citizens, as well as my own 
upon this occasion. 

I have the honour, &c. 



APPENDIX. 317 

The Trustees of the Free School to the Vestry of Trinity 

Church. 

New- York, May 10th, 1815. 
Gentlemen : 

The trustees of the Free School Society of New- York would 
do injustice to their feelings were they not, in addition to their 
public acknowledgment, to express to you, in a more direct form, 
their high sense of your liberality, charity, and public spirit, in 
appropriating the valuable grounds in Christopher, Columbia, 
and Hudson streets, for the purpose of dispensing education to 
the poor of this city. 

As long as benevolence shall be considered a virtue and 
knowledge a blessing, this act will command the approbation of 
all good men. 

I am, in behalf of the trustees, 

Very respectfully, your most obedient servant. 



De Witt Clinton to J. Ellicott. 

Albany, April 4th, 1816. 
Dear Sir : 

Accompanying this, you will receive an interesting map rela- 
tive to the country affected by the proposed canal. It is to be 
regretted that the scale is too small. I think that the canal is 
in a favourable train, and I hope that it will receive the sanction 
of the Legislature in a few days. Your suggestions relative to 
the ways and means are interesting, and will, I have no doubt, 
be adopted either on this or a future occasion. 

Having, ever since Governor has unhinged the execu- 
tive power by shrinking from responsibility, considered tho 
council of appointment as a deleterious and disgraceful body, I 
have paid little or no attention to their proceedings, and I had 
not learned, until I received your letter, their doings relative to 
Geneva. These proceedings are similar (if not more agcrrava- 
ted) to those which have taken place in other respects. 

Dd2 



318 APPENDIX. 

The truth is, that the whole of the appointing power is in the 
hands of four irresponsible individuals, whose ephemeral impor- 
tance is succeeded by an exit into obscurity ; and the state is 
disgraced, and the republican party divided and diminished, to 
gratify a hunter after popularity, who had not the nerve to do 
right, but whose system is a system of ever-varying shifts and 
petty expedients, without an intellect sufficiently enlarged to 
comprehend the great interests of the state. 

The present council, at least three of themj are totally free 

from the influence of which you suspect them ; of I cannot 

speak in other respects, but I presume he is also. Those I 
know rely very much on the advice of . 

I believe that there are strong objections to , not only 

on account of the republican principle of rotation, but upon ac- 
count of the condition of the republican party, which is divided, 
disgraced, and nearly ruined ; but our affairs are brought to a 

crisis, and from the political character of , and the probable 

results of his success, I shall support T , not as a positive 

good, but as a less evil. 



J)e Witt Clinton to the Governor of Pennsylvania. 

Albany, September 20th, 1817. 
Dear Sir : 

My absence from this place has prevented an earlier reply to 
your excellency's communication of the 3d instant. 

The measures adopted by Pennsylvania to connect the waters 
of the Seneca Lake and Tioga River, exhibit an intelligent, en- 
terprising, and patriotic spirit ; and the benefits which will arise 
from the execution of the plan will be experienced in the crea- 
tion of an extensive inland trade, and in the consequent encour- 
agement of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures. The ob- 
vious tendency of this measure is to facilitate the transportation 
of commodities from this to the neighbouring states. 

From a full persuasion that our country will be best advanced 
by multiplying the markets for her productions, and by an inti- 



APPENDIX. 319 

mate and beneficial connexion between the different members 
of the confederacy, I consider it a sacred duty to overlook local 
considerations, and to promote, to the utmost of my power, every 
plan which may be subservient to these important objects ; and 
I cherish with confidence the opinion, that the state over which 
you preside will, under the influence of an enlightened public 
spirit, co-operate with this state in promoting our contemplated 
navigable communications between the Northern and Western 
lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. 

Under this impression I now transmit to your excellency the 
official reports of the canal commissioners, and the acts of the 
Legislature of this state on that subject. 



De Wilt Clinton to Rufus King. 

Albany, December 13th, 1817. 
Dear Sir : 

I feel greatly obliged by your letter of the 5th. I have taken 
measures to ascertain the state of our claims vs. the United 
States ; but I am apprehensive that they have been greatly, if 
not totally, neglected. As soon as I obtain the necessary in- 
formation, it is probable I shall write to you and your colleague 
at large on this subject. 

The canal commissioners have recently had a meeting at this 
place. The Northern canal will be contracted for in toto before 
spring, and some work has been already done on it. Sixty miles 
of the Western have been contracted for, to be frnishcd by the 
first of December, 1818 ; and work to the extent of twenty 
miles has been already effected, and all these arrangements have 
been made within the estimates of the commissioners. 

My great regard for the president, and my anxiety to extend 
our navigable communication, induces me to regret exceedingly 
his scruples about the right of Congress to promote internal im- 
provements ; and I perceive a total interruption of the interpo- 
sition of the national government in favour of roads and canals. 
The probability is, that no amendment removing the difficulty 



320 APPENDIX. 

will be sanctioned by the states. Some will oppose, because 
they believe that the power is already vested in Congress ; and 
others will object, because they believe that it ought not to be 
deposited in that body. After swallowing the National Bank 
and the Cumberland Road, &c., it was not to be supposed that 
Mr. Madison would strain at canals ; but so it is ; and the gal- 
lantry of his successor, in protecting him with his Telamonian 
shield, is more to be admired for its spirit than its prudence. 
We shall go on without any expectations of extraneous aid ; and 
in the course of ten years, I hope, if Providence spares our lives, 
to have the pleasure of a canal voyage with you fron; L&ke Erie 
to Albany. 



J)e Witt Clinton to Thomas Eddy. 

Albany, December 23d, 1822. 

Dear Sir : 

Mr. S. Burling lately solicited me to recommend the intro- 
duction of a plan for laying an excise on spirituous liquors, 
and I partly promised that I would ; but, on farther reflection, 
I consider it most suitable that the overture should emanate 
from his constituents, and with this view I now write to you. 

In some well-written essays published on this subject in 
Walsh's paper, it was estimated that fifty millions of gallons of 
spirituous liquors are annually consumed in the United States, 
at an expense of thirty millions of dollars, and with the sacrifice 
of thirty thousand lives. If this be only an approximation to 
the truth, what a field for reflection does it present to the mor- 
alist and statesman. 

After deducting foreign importations of spirits, say to the 
amount of six millions of gallons, and allowing for four millions 
produced from foreign molasses, there would still remain forty 
millions manufactured from our own materials. Does not this 
astound us with its enormity and alarm, as with its terrific as- 
pect! 

An excise of one shilling a gallon would produce a revenue 



APPENDIX. ' 321 

of five millions a year. Double the duty, and you will raise a 
fund that will pay off the national debt, and line and intersect 
the country in all directions with canals and roads. 

Every considerable increase of the price of an article tends to 
check its consumption ; and here the revenue of a country 
would be auxiliary to its morality — a noble union in the eye of 
a great statesman. 



De Witt Clinton to Henry Eagan. 

Albany, October 1st, 1823. 
Sir: 

I had the honour of receiving your letter of the I6ih ultimo, 
and, greatly respecting the honourable feelings which have 
prompted that communication, I hasten to reply to it. A gen- 
eral answer will, I presume, embrace the material points on 
which you wish to be satisfied. 

Your duties as a Knight Templar are subordinate to the du- 
ties which you owe to yourself, your family, and your country, 
and your natural and social rights cannot be destroyed by ma- 
sonic communion ; you have a right, therefore, to withdraw 
from the encampment of Knights Templar whenever you may 
consider it necessary, on discharging your pecuniary obligations 
to the institution ; and no presiding officer has any right to in- 
terrupt you in the exercise of this right. 



De Witt Clinton to Joseph Sabine. 

Albany, October 10th, 1823. 
Sir: 

I have received, at different times, all the transactions of the 
Horticultural Society of London, as far as the second part of 
the fifth volume inclusive, and I need not say how highly grati- 
fied 1 am at this splendid specimen of the arts, combined with 
so much useful information. 

I have also received your zoological appendix to Captain 
Franklin's journey, for which I thank you. The accurate and 



322 APPENDIX. 

important information which it contains renders it an acquisition 
to natural history. 

I see that you have noticed the " Columba Migratoria ;" as this 
is one of our most interesting birds, I have sent by Mr. Doug- 
lass six living ones, which I hope will reach you in good order. 
I have enclosed a paper which contains some observations on 
this bird. You will also receive specimens of preserved birds 
for your collection. 

I am much obliged to you for the N.epaul rice, and I have 
made such a distribution of it as I hope will produce good re- 
sults. 

I have afforded Mr. Douglass all the facilities in my power, 
by letters of recommend^Ltion, written directions, and verbal ad- 
vice. The notice of the Horticultural Society which I trans- 
mit by this conveyance, was written by me with a view to pro- 
pitiate the public mind in favour of his mission. I consider your 
selection a judicious one : he unites enthusiasm, intelligence, and 
persevering activity. 

I have sent by him a box of minerals for your cabinet. They 
were collected in the excavation of secondary limestone, about 
thirty miles from Lake Erie, in the course of our canal opera- 
tions. I have not inspected the box ; but, if they are put up ac- 
cording to my directions, you will find some specimens not a 
little interesting. 

You will also receive the Memoirs of our Board of Agricul- 
ture, in two volumes, and the transactions of a society for Use- 
ful Information, in three volumes. They are intended for the 
library of the Horticultural Society. 

Mr. Douglass will deliver a box containing some specimens 
of fruit, which, if they reach you without decay, may interest 
you by their size, if not by their flavour. 

The deerskin socks, or moccasins as they are called by the 
Indians, were manufactured among the Cayugas, and they, to- 
gether with the pamphlets and other articles in the same box, 
are intended for you, with the exception of the seeds that you 
may consider useful for the society. 



APPENDIX. 323 

I think it would be beneficial for your institution to have two 
additional corresponding members in this country, one for the 
North and one for the South. Jesse Buel, Esq., of Albany, sec- 
retary of the Board of Agriculture of New-York, and John S. 
Skinner, Esq., postmaster of Baltimore, are particularly well 
qualified, and their admission as corresponding members will, I 
am persuaded, be the means of procuring intelligence and con- 
tributions of various kinds and of the most interesting character. 

Mr. Skinner will forward a bushel of the famous white wheat 
of Maryland, and several volumes of the American Farmer, pub- 
lished by hira, and Mr. Buel will also make a communication 
to you. 



De Witt Clinton to Micajah S. Williams. 

New- York, November 18th, 1823. 
Sir: 

Your communication of this day covers a very wide field of 
inquiry, and emibraces many important considerations ; there- 
fore I shall endeavoufr to give a prompt, explicit, and, I hope, 
satisfactory reply. 

The projected canal between Lake Erie and the Ohio River, 
ift connexion with the New- York canals, will form a navigable 
communication between the bay of New- York, the Gulf of 
Mexico, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence; of course it will em- 
brace within its influence the greater part of the United States 
and of the Canadas. The advantages of a canal of this descrip- 
tion are so obvious, so striking, so numerous, and so" extensive, 
that it is a work of supererogation to bring them into view. 
The State of Ohio, from the fertility of its soil, the benignity of 
its climate, and its geographical position, must always contain 
a dense population ; and the products and consumptions of its 
inhabitants mast for ever form a lucrative and extensive inland 
trade, exciting the powers of productive industry, and com- 
municating aliment and energy to external commerce. But 
when we consider that this canal will open a way into the great 



324 APPENDIX. 

rivers that fall into the Mississippi ; that it will be felt, not only 
in the immense valley of that river, but as far west as the Rocky 
Mountains and the borders of Mexico ; and that it will commu- 
nicate with our great inland seas and their tributary rivers, with 
the ocean in various routes, and with the most productive re- 
gions of America; there can be no question respecting the bless- 
ings that it will produce, the riches that it will create, and the 
energies that it will call into activity. 

It must be obvious that there can be no insurmountable phys- 
ical difficulties to the opening of this canal, if there be a suffi- 
ciency of water on the summit level ; and the researches that 
have been made establish an abundant supply beyond the pos- 
sibility of doubt. The only questions that can present them- 
selves are those of comparative difficulty, expense, accommoda- 
tion, and productiveness in the designation of a route ; and this 
must be committed to the decision of able and experienced en- 
gineers. 

I should suppose that the maximum cost of this improvement 
would exceed $2,500,000. In five years, by an annual ex- 
penditure of $500,000, this work may be advantageously com- 
pleted. At the rate of six per cent., there would be wanted 
$30,000 to pay the first year's interest * the second year, 
$60,000 ; the third year, $90,000 ; the fourth year, $120,000 ; 
and the fifth year, $150,000. The only financial difficulty, in my 
opinion, will be the procurement of funds for the payment of 
the interest. 

If the canal be commenced on the lake side, every step of its 
progress will open a most extensive navigation, and be the 
means of producing revenue ; and, at the termination of the five 
years, the profits of the canal will not only defray the interest, 
but produce a surplus revenue applicable to other objects^ 

Supposing this canal to be 200 miles in extent, it would un- 
doubtedly, by a vigorous effort, be finished in two years ; but it is 
advisable to extend the period to five years. The banks will 
in that case become consolidated before much use. As the op- 
eration proceeds, there will be an augmentation of skill and ac- 



APPENDIX. 325 

quisition of experience, which will produce economy and im- 
proved workmanship ; and as one fifth of the whole sum will 
in this case be only required for each year, the pecuniary ad- 
vances that are essential will not be so onerous as if made 
within a shorter period ; and it ought to be recollected that the 
Erie Canal will be completed next year ; that Ohio can avail her- 
self of the aid of able engineers and skilful contractors; and that 
an undertaking conducted under such auspices will propitiate 
public opinion, and secure the confidence of capitalists who are 
disposed to embark their funds in the enterprise. 

I shall now proceed to answer the following interrogatory, 
** Whether, in my opinion, funds can, say in two years from this 
time, be obtained, by loans at different periods, as may be re- 
quired, to the amount of $2,500,000, on the credit and in behalf 
of the State of Ohio, at an interest of six per cent, per annum, 
by giving satisfactory references for paying the interest semi- 
annually, and reimbursing the principal at the termination of 
thirty years 1" 

I have no hesitation in answering affirmatively ; I have no 
doubt but that funds to the extent specified, and on the terms 
proposed, may be procured. The requisite loan may be ob- 
tained either in Europe or in this country. 

It will be recollected that there is a vast disposable unem- 
ployed capital in Great Britain. The finances of that country 
are in a state of improvement, and in a period of peace she now 
requires no loans. The greatest borrower is consequently out 
of the market. The moneyed men in Europe have therefore 
accommodated France, Austria, Russia, and some of the gov- 
ernments in South America, with extensive loans, and certainly 
none of them afford such ample security for reimbursement as 
the State of Ohio. 

The moral and political institutions of Ohio are all propitious 
to the observance of good faith ; her population is respectable 
in number, and excelled by none in elevation of character ; her 
government has been wisely administered, and she cherishes 
with enthusiasm that spirit of liberty and independence which is 

El 



326 APPENDIX. 

connected with the best interests of men and the most flourishing 
condition of states. 

Next to New-York, Ohio will be the most populous state in 
the Union ; she is susceptible of a population of 12 millions ; 
contains 39,000 square miles, and has every facility for carrying 
the pursuits of productive industry to the highest pitch of im- 
provement. 

She therefore presents all the leading inducements for the 
confidence of capitalists. She does not owe a cent, and can, it 
is hoped, so arrange her financial affairs as to laeet the interest 
of the loans. 

At the termination of one year New- York will have no far- 
ther occasion for loans ; and in two years a considerable portion 
of the funded debt of the United States will be paid off. Capi- 
talists can then find no better place of investment than Ohio. 

If two millions and a half are borrowed, every square mile in 
Ohio will be only answerable for sixty-four dollars. What an 
ample security for so small a sum ! and it will be recollected 
that, when this canal is perfected, it will, by the markets which 
it opens, increase the value of lands almost immediately fifty 
per cent., and diffuse the blessings of opulence over the whole 
country. 

In a word, sir, all that is necessary to complete this great en- 
terprise is the will to direct it. Considering, as I always have, 
that it is only a continuation of the Erie Canal ; that it will pro- 
mote correspondent advantages, and that it is identified with the 
stability of our government and the prosperity of our country, I 
own that I feel a more than common solicitude on this subject. 



De Witt Clinton to William D. Foot. 

Albany, December 4th, 1823. 
My dear Sir : 
Your friendly letter of the 17th of November arrived when I 
was on a visit to New- York, from which place I have recently 
returned. This must be my apology for so protracted a reply. 



APPENDIX. 327 

When at that place I have learned enough to convince me 
that your suggestions are correct, and this impression is cor- 
roborated from so many respectable quarters, that doubt would 
be affectation. The body politic is indeed about to relieve itself 
from the unnatural pressures which have been heaped upon it. 

As to the future, we must be regulated by events, keeping 
strictly in view the great interests of our country, as paramount 
to all earthly considerations. In the opinion of the best-informed 
men in the Union, the voice of this state will have a preponder- 
ating effect. Governor Randolph, Mr. Jefferson's enlightened 
and patriotic son-in-law, told me so lately, and without reserve, 
in New-York. In whose favour that voice shall be expressed 
is a subject which requires great deliberation. If we cannot 
obtain the greatest good, we must endeavour to select the next, 
and, at all events, to avoid alarming evils. 

The events which are in a train of development will have an 
important bearing, not only on the well-being of America, but on 
the stability of free government ; and yet it is appalling to per- 
ceive such struggles for power without reference to the public 
interest. We must, after all, my worthy friend, rely upon the 
general diffusion of education as the palladium of liberty. The 
people always mean right ; and, although sometimes misled, yet 
they will, in the progress of time, render justice to themselves 
and to their real friends, if the blessings of knowledge are freely 
and fully communicated. 

You will perceive that this hasty communication is intended 
for your private perusal ; I shall be happy to be favoured with a 
continuation of your correspondence. 



De Witt Clinton to Mahlon Dickerson. 

Albany, December 13th, 1823. 
Deab Sir : 
I thank you for the President's Message, which is justly con- 
sidered an able document. If you have any intelligence with 
respect to the Northern Canal of New Jersey, it will give me 



328 APPENDIX. 

great pleasure to hear from you respecting it, as I conceive the 
contemplated measure to have a very important bearing on the 
public interests. 

When I had the pleasure of seeing you at your house, I 
promised, in reference to the prosperity of your fishponds, to 
communicate to you a mode of raising trout that has been suc- 
cessfully adopted in Europe. 

About forty years ago, Mr. Jacobi, of Hanover, after pre- 
paring a trough with gravel at the bottom, through which spring 
water was made to flow, took a female trout, and pressed and 
rubbed its belly gently, by which means it parted very readily 
with its spawn without any injury, in a basin of clear water. 
He then took a male trout, and rubbed and pressed its belly 
gently in the same manner, to let the melt or soft roe enter the 
same basin where the female roe was, and then stirred them to- 
gether. The same result would follow if the roe were cut out 
of dead fishes, and mixed together in the same way. He then 
spread the mixed spawn in the trough, and let in the water. 
A more detailed account of this process may be found in the 
thirty-fourth volume of Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine, which 
work you either have, or ought to have, in the library of Con- 
gress. In this way he bred annually vast quantities of salmon* 
trout, and other fresh-water fish. 

We have so many good indigenous fish, that it has not been 
thought worth while to import any new species. The common 
carp was introduced into England in 1514 ; its favourite resi- 
dence is in slow and stagnant water ; it unites rapidity of growth 
with longevity, and is very fruitful, a single carp having pro- 
duced 342,144 eggs ; and it is also considered excellent food. 
It is a hardy fish, and may be imported alive, or its spawn may 
be put up and transmitted in jars, as is practised in similar cases 
by the Chinese. 

The Cyprinus Auratus, or Gold-fish, is a native of China and 
Japan ; it will flourish in any collection of pure water, and its 
increase is prodigious. It is said to be good for the table. This 
fish was imported into Europe from China, and has been intro- 



APPENDIX. 329 

duced into this country by that circuitous route. I have them 
in glass vessels in my house, where they make a beautiful ap- 
pearance. They were obtained from a little pond on the island 
of New- York, which is literally filled with them. As they mul- 
tiply with great rapidity, one of your fishponds ought to be 
stocked with them. They will at least furnish food for your 
trout, besides gratifying the sight with their beautiful appearance. 
If you have a desire to be supplied, call on Dr. Hosack when 
you visit New-York, and it will give him great pleasure to see 
you accommodated. If I am successful in importing the com- 
mon carp from England, you shall participate in the benefits of 
my enterprise. 



De Witt Clinton to Jacob Harvey. 

Albany, March 20th, 1824. 
Dear Sir : 
I send by this steamboat O'Driscoll's work on Ireland, and 
Washington's Sketch of the United States, in separate enve- 
lopes. The former is a book of much interest, and contains 
many original views and much valuable information. He, how- 
ever, too evidently strains his brains to shine as a fine writer, 
and he sometimes tires the reader by uniformity, and palls the 
appetite by high seasoning. A traveller is more fatigued if the 
road is level or straight, than if it be waving or winding. The 
Sermons of Blair and the Poems of Darwin have been received 
as models of superior writing, but they soon lose their hold on 
the mind by their splendid monotony. O'Driscoll has fancy, 
pathos, discrimination, information, a great command of lan- 
guage, and, what is better, an entire devotedness to his much- 
injured country. Except two or three paradoxes, I see nothing 
to object to the matter of his book. His idea that the manu- 
facturing greatness of England is owing to the poor laws, is 
about as wise as the doctrine of Malthus, that the calamities of 
Ireland are owing to potatoes. 

In defiance of this heretical dogma of Malthus, I did not hesi- 
tate to try how far it would apply to the comfort of individuals ; 

EbS 



330 APPENDIX. 

and I availed myself of the opportunities which you have so 
kindly afforded me for a full experiment, and I assure you that 
I found nothing in the process but what puts the hypothesis of 
Malthus to the blush. Surely what is beneficial to individuals 
must be so to communities or collections of individuals. The 
salubrity of the potato is demonstrated in the beauty of your 
women, the strength of your men ; and as population depends 
on subsistence, even according to the speculations of Malthus, 
the increasing numbers of Ireland, harassed as that country has 
been by tithes, taxes, oppression, and bad government, establish 
beyond question the futility of his theory. 

I am, upon the whole, so much pleased with O'Driscoll, that 
I shall esteem it as a continuation of your kindness if you will 

favour me with an opportunity of looking at his newspapers. 

***** * 

* » * « * * 

In compliance with your request, and in accordance with my 
hereditary predilections, I did not on the 17th forget the coun- 
try for which God has done so much and men so little, nor did 
I omit to render my devoirs to the saint, and to pledge the health 
.of the friend who has so kindly reminded me of the occasion. 



J)e Witt Clinton to John Jacob Astor. 

New-York, December 2d, 1824. 
Dear Sir : 

When on a short visit to this place, I had the pleasure of re- 
ceiving from your son your letter from Geneva. The surprise 
which your silence had produced was removed by hearing of the 
accident which has occurred to you, and of which your com- 
munication gave me the first information. 

The growth of this city exceeds the most sanguine anticipa- 
tions. You will scarcely recognise it on your return ; upward 
of 3000 houses will be erected this year. This extraordinary 
prosperity is principally imputable to the great canals, all of 
which are finished, except 30 miles of the Western termination 
^f the Erie Canal, and which will be completed the beginning 



APPENDIX. 



331 



of next July. The revenue from tolls this year will be 325,000 
dollars, and every succeeding season will augment its amount. 
I always told you that, if I were proprietor of the island of New- 
York, I would at once construct these works at my own ex- 
pense ; and there is now no part of the world which contains a 
canal of such extent as the Western one, and which has a city 
that forms the concentrating point of such immense internal and 
external commerce as New- York. 

Our political excitements will not be terminated until the ter- 
mination of the pending presidential election. The 24 electoral 
colleges met yesterday in their respective states, and gave in 
their votes : the whole number of votes is 261. 

The probability is, that Jackson will have 100 votes, Adams 
80, and the remainder will be divided between Crawford and 
Clay. A majority.of all the votes, that is, 131, is necessary to 
constitute a choice by the electoral college ; and in case this 
aggregate number is not rendeted, the election is transferred to 
the House of Representatives, who select by states one out of 
the three highest on the list of the electoral colleges. Whether 
Crawford or Clay will be the third person is doubtful, but it is 
believed that it will be the former. In every alternative, the 
general opinion and the general wish is in favour of the elec- 
tion of Jackson. 

You will probably see in the gazettes that I am elected gov- 
ernor by the greatest majority that was ever given in this state 
in a contested election. The other elections have been of a 
similar character, and we are completely rescued from the late 
dominant party. If Heaven shall spare my life, I will endeavour 
to put this state on a footing which will call all her energies into 
activity, and elevate her still higher in the scale of prosperity. 

Your return will afford the highest satisfaction to your nu- 
merous friends, and to none more than to yours sincerely. 



332 APPENDIX. 

De Witt Clinton to James Renwick. 

Albany, October 1st, 1825. 

Dear Sir : 

The firing of heavy cannon along the line of the Erie Canal 
on the day of the celebration of its completion, and probably 
from Albany to New-York, may afford a good opportunity for 
some interesting experiments on the phenomena of sound by the 
use of accurate chronometers at suitable places. The distance 
from Buffalo to Sandy Hook, by way of the canal, is rising 500 
miles I am aware that acoustics or the philosophy of sound 
has been closely attended to, but there is constantly unexplored 
ground in every science, and valuable gleanings may at least be 
elicited from the most improved state of useful knowledge. 



De Witt Clinton to Parmenio Adams. 

Albany, December 21st, 1825. 

Dear Sir : 

You have done me the honour to ask my opinion respecting 
the most advisable constitutional arrangement for the promotion 
of internal improvements. On this subject I never had a doubt 
As the national government has all the effective revenue and 
funds of the nation, it ought, if it has not, to be invested with the 
power of distributing a due portion among the several states for 
the establishment of canals, &c. The rule of apportiomnent 
should be population, or, if you please, representation. There 
might be some difficulty in making all the requisite provisions on 
this subject. When there is a common interest of several states, 
and the intended work passes only through one state, then the 
states interested ought to make a common concern. 

For these reasons, and to remove all doubts, I should like an 
amendment to the Constitution, investing Congress with the 
power of appropriation only and no other, and with th.s express- 
ion the first part of Mr. Bailey's amendment is proper in sub- 
stance ; but the second section, empowering Congress to make 



APPENDIX. 333 

BTirveys of coasts, rivers, roads, &;c., is, in fact, investing them 
witii plenary power over the whole subject, and extending it to 
other points. What power is to judge of urgent purposes but 
Congress ; and they may or may not dispense money to the states 
as they please. This amendment, if adopted, would be a virtual 
annihilation of the state governments ; and I am astonished at 
the foolery of the proposal. The author might have considered 
it a profound artifice, but its insidious and Jesuitical character is 
obvious ; and, although the head of the ostrich is concealed, yet 
the whole body is completely exposed. Under the pretext of 
rendering homage to the state governments, it gives them no- 
thing, and the general government everything. 



De Witt Clinton to William D. Ford. 

Albany, April 14th, 1826. 
Dear Sir : 
I have nominated you for Master in Chancery. I should have 
added the office of Examiner, but it would be against a rule 
which I have adopted, not to vest these two offices in the same 
person. This explanation I think proper to make, because the 
calumnious reports which appear to have been received and 
cherished in your village may also have infected this subject. 

I received a letter from of a very impertinent character, 

and which I shall consign to the merited contempt of silence, 
inquiring, in substance, whether I had changed my principles 
and abandoned my friends ; from this and other sources I infer 
the existence of slanders of various kinds in your quarter, and 
the whole system seems to originate from the appointment of a 
notary. This office has never, that I can recollect, been refused 
by me on political grounds, and it has always been classed 
among those minor offices which are not worthy of any other 
notice than the fitness of the candidate. The applications in 
such cases of the members from the counties where the officers 
are, have been generally, if not always, acceded to on the ground 
of unity, and with a view to destroy, as far as possible, those 



334 APPENDIX. 

agitations which have convulsed and disgraced the state. As 
Mr. T was very improperly rejected by the Senate last ses- 
sion, with a view, as I was told, to obtain the appointment of 

notary for a Mr. , I was determined not to nominate the 

latter, and the former has since declined a renomination. In 
the interval between the declining of Mr. T and the re- 
ceipt of the recommendation of Mr. B., a recommendation in 
favour of Mr. W., by the Senator and Members of Assembly of 
your county, was handed to me, and I acquiesced, as usual, in the 
arrangement ; and I am only surprised that men of sense should 
so far lose their intelligence as to lay stress on such petty in- 
cidents. 

Mr. B. was nominated as brigade inspector. The brigadier 
general is opposed to it ; and, in taking this step, which I con- 
sider due to his position and his merits, I am not without my 
apprehensions that he may be rejected. The opposition, you 
know, have a majority in the Senate, and a conciliatory system 
is necessary between the two branches of the appointing power, 
in order to promote the best interests of our country ; for the 
best laws are inefficient without good officers to execute them. 

My course of policy was delineated in my first message. 
Chosen by the people, I expressed my determination to be their 
governor, not the governor of a party. I have acted on this sys- 
tem honourably, conscientiously, and to the general satisfaction. 
Not a murmur of disapprobation has been expressed against the 
principle ; but, when it is carried into practice, the most injurious 
imputations are applied ; and, with some of the blustering pa- 
triots of the day, moderation is apostacy ; and an attempt to 
unite the people in favour of their own prosperity, and in virtu- 
ous and patriotic principles, is denounced as a profligate coali- 
tion ; and the jugglers behind the distant curtain, who blow up 
the coals of discord, are worshipped by the few, the very few 
puppets of their ambition : but they that sow the windiwill prob- 
ably reap the whirlwind. /- ^-^ 'c, ^ ? Jk 

. THE END. 









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